Dangerous Obsessions Redux
by DiscordianSamba
Summary: AU. Four years ago, Danny Fenton vanished from Amity Park. Now that he's returned, seeking only one thing, he's dragged along something with him- something dark and sinister, that wants him back at any cost. And she's not the only one, as most of the forces of Amity Park are now gunning for Phantom, a strange and rare ghost of a very dangerous nature. Rewrite of the first DO.
1. The One Who Was Lost Comes Home

Author's Note: So, this is something I've been actually planning for a long time. Apparently when people in the Danny Phantom fandom think of me (when they do at all these days) they think of this story and it's just... agh, I don't like how the old version is written at all, it's so bad, and so many errors and ugh, I just don't like looking at it, okay? So I decided to rewrite it, with changes. Different plot flow, more characters than the previous version, less rush, and just... make it better, ya know?

This also does come with two other pieces of news- while the fates of my other Danny Phantom fan fiction are still up in the air, I can say that Black and White and Two of a Kind will be getting rewrites and will be finished. I think one of the huge reasons that they never got finished in the first place is the writing gap, I just kept looking at the earlier chapters and ugh, they just kept looking worse and worse and _bluuuuh_, it just made me not want to deal with it. Shadow of the Reaper is being turned into an original story, so that will not be continued. It will be left up though, as will the old version of DO. I'm thinking about Thawing the Ice and Graveyard Shift as well, but I'm unsure.

For the moment, I'll be putting Dangerous Obsessions, Black and White, and Blood and Snow (whoops Detective Conan where did you come from), in a rotation. I think I will also be able to handle that timewise. Please don't pester me about stories, but do feel free to give suggestions if you have any.

Danny Phantom isn't mine, but y'all should know that.

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions

Chapter One: The One Who Was Lost Comes Home

Alarms blared, sirens flashed, and armed men and women, wearing combat gear, stormed up and down hallways, the sound of stomping feet echoing through the corridors. It was chaos, in a sense, but well trained chaos still. The men and women would pause every so often, unlocking cell doors to check on those inside, confirming that the only people who were inside of them were the ones who were supposed to be there. Once they found them empty save for their normal occupant, they slammed them shut, locking them once more.

In all of this hurried chaos, an impassive looking woman stood. She looked young, most likely in her late twenties, with light brown hair worn shortly cropped, just touching her chin, and light brown eyes to match. She wore a white tank top, a cream colored miniskirt, and a pair of brown sandals with extensive white straps that made their way up to her knees. Over that, she wore a lab coat, a scientist of some kind, perhaps, save for the fact that said lab coat was currently stained with blood, some of it strange colors, blue, green, things other than the normal red. There was a mean scar in the middle of her left leg, like an animal had clawed at it.

"You there." She said after a moment, reaching out to stop one of the armed men, her hand placed on his shoulder. Despite the smallness of said hand, it seemed to be enough to make the man's blood run cold, though he looked as if he had a good few years on her. "You still haven't found him yet?"

"N-no, ma'am!" The armed man gave this woman a salute, trying to conceal his own nervousness, but betrayed by the beads of sweat trickling down his face. "We've been scouring every corner of the facility, checking patient rooms, and all other areas! But there's been no sign of him as of yet!"

"I see." The woman frowned, looking quite displeased. This only served to increase the man's tension. Some of his coworkers who passed by stopped to shoot him sympathetic glances, clearly glad that they were not in his shoes at the moment. Good things did not happen when their boss was upset. "That's not good enough." She said after a moment. "You understand that, right?" She asked him.

"Yes, ma'am!" The man said again. "Do you have any additional orders, ma'am?"

The woman pondered the question, for far longer than necessary, the man thought. "How are the guards who were watching his cell? Are they alive?" She asked.

"Yes, they are! They were put to sleep somehow, it seems!" The man reported again.

"I see." The woman's eyes narrowed. She hadn't recalled him having that power, it must have been new. "Well, that won't do. Failure in the line of duty is not to be tolerated." Smiling up at the man, she locked eyes with him. "I'm sure you know exactly how to handle such failures, right?"

The man gulped, not needing to be told what his boss planned to have him do, and gave her a salute. "Yes, ma'am! I will see to it that they are put to death myself! Would you like them shot, or put into the arena?"

"Hm." The woman pondered this question too. "Shoot them and _then _put them in the arena. In the knees, if possible. Use patient 2942, I think. You know, acid spit guy?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The man saluted again, before quickly making his retreat before she decided to have him killed too. Why on earth did he ever take up this job?

* * *

Waking up in cold sweat was nothing new for him, he thought, placing a hand on his forehead, reminding himself that everything he had just seen was a dream. He was no longer there, in that place, he was free now. He had escaped from there, run away, fled. It had been an entire year since he had been cooped up there, any traces of humanity stripped away from him.

But the nightmares kept coming.

Pushing away those thoughts, he glanced over at the cheap clock that belonged to the hotel room he had 'rented'. Well, not rented, really- he'd just sort of occupied it without notice. Borrowed, perhaps. It wasn't like he had any money to pay his way, and like hell he was sleeping on a park bench when there were all these perfectly good rooms lying empty of occupants. Groaning and noticing that it was still early in the morning, three fifty, to be exact, he heaved a sigh, deciding it was best if he headed out already.

Pulling himself out of the bed, eighteen year old Danny Fenton stretched, feeling his bones cracking as he did so. Heading into the bathroom, he tossed aside the spare jeans and T-shirt he used for sleeping, and turned on the shower. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes, standing back as he waited for the water to heat up enough, not having any desire to freeze his balls off in the middle of winter. He glanced in the mirror as he waited, frowning a little, reaching to twist the white streak in his bangs that hung over his right eye. He wondered if he should perhaps dye it to black, but he figured it would only be a matter of time before it appeared again.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue, moving his hand down to his ears, which though he usually hid them beneath a hat, had become pointed. "Bothersome things." He mumbled to himself, stepping in the shower. "Ah, that's more like it! Last hotel room I ran into couldn't get the blasted temperature right. You would think they thought their hotel guests enjoyed balls freezing water or having a molten inferno drip down on them, seriously. Who would enjoy that anyways?"

Danny rolled his eyes, cleaning himself off, taking great care not to irritate any of his numerous scars. They dotted his torso, painful, angry looking things, many of which had never really been given time to properly heal, being opened again and again. He winced a little as he ran afoul of the a jagged one on his upper left arm, quick snippets of memories flashing back to as to how he had gotten it as he did so. "Fuckin' hell!" He swore, taking in a sharp breath before he steadied himself again.

Finishing up his shower quickly after that, Danny shook out his hair. It had grown longer since he was fourteen, he noticed, and he wondered if he should have it cut. No, that would be more trouble than it was worth, it was fine leaving it at the shoulder length that it was. He was only going back to Amity Park for a little while, he reminded himself, and didn't see the need to really bother with changing back his appearance more towards how it used to be.

There was no way he could go back to what he used to be, after all, so why bother pretending?

He was going home for one thing, and one thing only, Danny thought to himself, scooping up his change of clothes and dressing himself again. He pulled on a pair of brown pants, belts sewn into them in places that did not require belts, shaking out his hair a bit some more before he pulled on a dark gray T-shirt, the bottom of it's sleeves torn and frayed from wear and tear, and pulled on another light gray tank top over it. Grabbing a dark gray knit cap, he tucked it neatly over his ears, before grabbing a black hoodie to block out the winter's chill, pulling the hood up over his face. Gathering his things and stuffing them in his duffel bag, he went about erasing traces of his presence there.

"Well then." He grinned to himself, standing back after he was done. "Time to depart."

* * *

"What's wrong with you today, Sam?" Tucker Foley asked his childhood friend, glancing over at her. School had let out for the day, and they were headed outside. "You've looked kind of nervous all day. I know the anniversary is coming up and all, but you're not normally like this around this time even. Is something up?"

"No." Sam shook her head, then paused, reconsidering her words. "Well, to be honest, I've actually sort of felt like someone's been watching me all day. But there's always no one there. It's starting to make me feel a little paranoid, honestly."

"Oi, isn't that bad?" Tucker blinked, looking worried for his friend. "Shouldn't we tell the police or someone about it? Sam, what if you have a stalker?"

"No, I'm sure it's not like that." Sam laughed a little, shaking her head. "I think it's just my mind playing tricks on me. The anniversary is coming up, after all. It's probably just stress." Catching her friend's stern look, she smiled at him a little, trying to reassure him. "Well, if it's still like this tomorrow, we'll go talk with the police, okay? I just don't want to look like an idiot if it turns out to be nothing."

"Well, if you're sure." Tucker frowned, shrugging his shoulders. He didn't see anyone watching Sam, now that he thought about it, and he didn't really feel this sensation she was speaking of either. Maybe it really was all in her head. Tucker also felt a bit haywire when the anniversary of their best friend's disappearance came up, after all.

It would be four years tomorrow.

At fourteen years of age, their best friend, Danny Fenton, had completely vanished. Although searches were carried out, no traces could be found. It was unknown if he had run away, been kidnapped, or perhaps caught up in some sort of other unfortunate situation. There had been no letter, nothing declaring intent of running away, and he hadn't been acting strangely before that day. There were no signs of struggle in his bedroom, or signs that an intruder had been in the house, no ransom notices or calls from a kidnapper. He hadn't shown up at any hospitals, and perhaps, most fortunate, he hadn't turned up as a corpse.

He was just... _gone._

His parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton had never stopped looking for him, and neither had his sister. She had even turned down a scholarship to one of the most prestigious colleges in America in order to stay in Amity Park. In her early twenties now, she was studying psychology at a local college instead. She didn't want to leave, holding out hope that Danny would one day show back up on their doorstep.

Rumors had swirled around when it had happened, but now, four years later, almost nobody but his friends and family thought about Danny Fenton. His teachers, who sometimes accidentally found themselves calling his name on the class roll, knowing full well that he wasn't there, had stopped doing so after a year. He wasn't enrolled at Casper High anymore, and most people had forgotten about him. While it was true that he didn't have much of a presence when he was there, only standing out for being the son of the town's two biggest crazies, the ghost hunting couple that was the Fentons, it was still sort of eerie to see him vanish from memory so easily.

"_Promise_, Tucker." Sam assured him, giving him a quick grin. "Besides, you and I both know that I'm not entirely defenseless, right? Of the two of us, I'd say you're the more vulnerable."

Tucker laughed at that. "That's true. But stay safe Sam." He told her. Four years had changed the both of them somewhat, but in many ways, they were still the same as they had been when Danny was here. A little taller, a little more mature, and Sam had grown out her hair to her waist, but otherwise, very much the same.

"Right, I will. I'll see you later, Tucker. Are we going to meet at the Fentons tomorrow?" Sam asked him, glancing back. "It's a Saturday, after all."

"Sure, sounds like a plan!" Tucker grinned, waving back at her.

Sam smiled, watching him go, before she headed off towards her own house. Her smile faded a little bit once she was alone, her mind darting off onto other thoughts. She still couldn't believe it sometimes, that Danny was no longer here with her. Nobody thought that something like this would happen to them, happen to someone that they knew. These things always happened to other people, not them. But his absence spoke volumes, and it wasn't until he was gone that she had really realized exactly how much she missed him and how she really felt about him.

They had always been friends for as long as she could remember. They had met in the first grade, and had been together ever since then. But at some point, without warning, probably during middle school, she had fallen in love with him. She herself hadn't realized this at first, and by the time she understood, it was too late.

A cold shiver ran through her spine then, and her eyes darted around. There it was again, that feeling! Trying to find where it came from, where those staring eyes peered at her from, she turned around, glancing about. There was something, someone, there, she just knew it, but she just couldn't see them. Seeing that there was no one there, Sam heaved a deep sigh, shaking her head. "You're just feeling things, Manson." She told herself, before turning around and promptly running into a person who hadn't been there before.

Standing in front of her was a young man, rather tall, at least six feet, she guessed. She couldn't really see his face, his eyes shadowed by a black hoodie, but he appeared to have black hair with a white streak in it. She could make out what appeared to be a black tattoo underneath his right eye, that looked like the silhouette of a hawk in flight. There was a half lit cigarette dangling out of the corner of his mouth, which was grinning at her a little. Over one of his shoulders, he was carrying a worn out looking black duffel bag. It wasn't all that hard for Sam to figure out the source of the strange feelings she had been getting today had been coming from him. Quickly creating some distance from him, her eyes narrowed as she looked him over.

"Now, now." He spoke up, and for some reason, Sam found the voice strangely familiar, yet there was something to it that she didn't quite recognize. "That's not nice, Sam! I thought you would be a little happier to see me after all this time." He said, plucking the cigarette from his mouth and putting it out on a nearby building, flicking it aside. Lowering his hood, Sam found her violet eyes meeting with a very familiar azure pair, and she felt herself do a sharp intake of breath, as gradually, she recognized this person.

"D-Danny?" Sam found herself stammering, unable to process what was right in front of her. This was Danny, of that she had very little doubt, but it was not the Danny that she recognized. The Danny that had left Amity Park was rather meek, somewhat lacking in backbone, and although his heart was always in the right place, things didn't always work out for him. He was a bit on the short side, as well, while this young man was a good head taller than her. "You... what happened to your _hair?"_ She found herself stupidly blurting out.

"Oh, this?" Danny asked, tugging on the white streak. "Does it look good? I think it suits me!" He told her, clearly looking pleased with himself. "And you grew out yours! It looks great on you Sam, but then, everything does!"

Sam blinked, a bit taken aback by such sudden words, finding her cheeks tinting red. "A-ah, thank you." She said, suddenly feeling strangely meek for a change. She quickly shook it off, however, and looked up at Danny, thoroughly perplexed. "Where have you been Danny? We've been dying of worry for you for the past four years! And when the hell did you take up smoking? And get a tattoo? And..." She cut herself off, shaking her head and reaching out to take his hand. "It's- it's really you right? I didn't hit my head and am having some crazy dream or something, right?" She asked him.

Danny flinched slightly when she took his hand, neatly slipping it from her grasp. "Of course it's me, Sam! You're not dreaming." He assured her, giving her a quick grin. "As for well, I've been all of these years, well to be honest," he laughed a little. "It's all sort of a blur. I don't really remember all that well. So there's really not much for me to tell you." He shrugged his shoulders as if this was somehow not a big deal, and having an apparent four year gap in his memory was not something to worry about.

Of course, he did remember everything. But she didn't exactly need to know that.

"You don't remember?" Sam frowned, eyebrows creasing in concern. "Danny, that's something you should be worrying about. You could have gotten mixed up in something, or I don't know..." She heaved a sigh, rubbing her forehead. "That said, I am glad to see you home. I mean, really, I am." Sam told him, reaching out to take both of his hands this time- God, but he was cold though. Had Danny always been this cold? She couldn't really recall, but it didn't seem that way.

"And I'm sure glad to see you, Sam." Danny told her, not seeming to like the contact this time either, but he apparently decided to let it slide. "And how's everyone else anyways? Is Jazz still trying to psychoanalyze everyone she meets and is Tucker still hiding his deep love for sewing?"

The mention of Jazz called Sam's attention to a very important fact, her face lighting up as she griped Danny's hands harder. "That's right, Danny! Your family! Oh, they're all going to be excited to see you home! They've been worrying sick over you all this time. Did you know Jazz passed up a scholarship to a prestigious college just to stay in Amity Park?" She asked him.

"O-oh, that's right." Danny flinched a little at the mention of seeing his family, which Sam thought strange. "I'll bet they are!" He quickly recovered after a moment.

"Come on, let's go see them now!" Sam said, her voice cheerful. She didn't let go of Danny's hands, though, somehow she got the strangest feeling that if she did, he might not be there when she looked back. She got the feeling that there was something else going on that she didn't quite understand, that he wasn't telling her, but she knew what was more important was ushering in a long overdue reunion.

Danny let himself be dragged behind the raven haired girl, unwilling to refuse her wish, not when she looked so darn happy about it. Traces of a faint smile appeared on his face as he watched her walk, her ponytail bobbing up and down as she went. Her pace was quick, but easy for him to keep up with- he probably could have overtaken her if he desired to do so. She was almost exactly like he had remembered her, and he wondered if she was still doing the Ultra-Recylo Vegetarian thing. In many ways he was relieved to see this, wondering at times if she had changed as greatly as he had.

Glancing down at her hand entwined with his, he realized this was impossible.

As they drew closer to the Fenton house, Danny had to resist the urge to laugh, seeing that it was exactly the same as he had left it. There was the Emergency Ops Center, still attached to the roof, the bright, neon sign that read Fenton Works still attached to the building. Vaguely, he wondered exactly what his parents had done to ensure that it didn't violate any zoning laws. He seemed to tense a little at the thought of his parents, eyes narrowing, his grip on Sam's hand tightening without thought. She noticed this, and glanced back at him.

"Danny? Something wrong?" Sam asked.

"No, nothing." Danny told her, smiling at her. "I'm just a bit nervous, after all. It's been awhile."

That seemed to satisfy her curiosity, and she turned her head back around. Danny's parents were probably the last people he wanted to see- well okay, not the last people, to be fair, there were others. But the last people from his old life at least, the one he had left behind. They were also the main reason he had chosen to leave Amity Park in the first place, he thought grimly. He had thought he might be safer that way.

What a fool he had been. He should have never left.

Sam hurried up the front steps, not bothering with knocking on the door, opening it up right away. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton! Jazz!" She called out, unable to contain the excitement in her voice. "Come quick, there's great news!"

"Hang on Sam honey, we're down in the lab!" Maddie called out.

In the meantime, Sam brought Danny inside, who glanced around the living room. It too, was mostly unchanged, save for a few minor details. They had replaced that dingy old couch at some point, and there seemed to be an abnormally large amount of photos of him scattered about for some reason. He picked one up idly, grimacing a little bit at the smiling boy that stared back at him. What exactly had he been like back then? For some reason, no matter how hard he tried, Danny couldn't recall.

Life from four years ago was strangely distant to him.

"Alright, Sam, what's all the fuss about? I haven't heard you _this _excited since they decided to remake your favorite horror series from the fifties with your favorite new director." Maddie could be heard asking, as she and Jack came up the stairs from the lab. For a second, Sam wondered where Jazz was, but then recalled she was usually in class around this time.

There was a sharp intake of breath then when they came into the living room. Danny was still absorbed in his own thoughts, looking over the photo in his hands, his back still turned to them. The sound seemed to snap him out of his thoughts however, and he set the framed photograph back on the table. He turned around to face them, but suddenly found himself being scooped up in a tight bear hug, the air all going out of his lungs at once.

"Danny my boy, you're back!" Jack yelled, his voice ear splitting at this range. "Maddie, our baby boy is back! And he's grown so big!" The large man told her excitedly, and Danny couldn't help but roll his eyes. His father, naturally, still towered over him as he did with everyone.

Danny gasped a little under his grip though, trying to push away from him. "B-breathing room." He gasped out after a moment. Thankfully his father managed to get the drift, and set him down on the ground. Taking in and letting out a few grateful breaths, he finally met the eyes of his mother. The first thing that struck him was how short she had gotten- no, rather, she hadn't gotten short, he'd just gotten taller. He never really realized when he was fourteen just how petite she was.

Now it was Maddie's turn to embrace him, wrapping her arms around his body. Danny seemed strangely uncomfortable with this too, in a different way than he had with his father, as if he didn't know what to do with it. "Oh Danny honey," she said, her voice soft in comparison to his father's, "...where have you been all this time? Your father and I were worried sick about you."

Pulling back, Maddie kept her hands on his shoulders, meeting eyes with him despite the height difference. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the sudden change in her son's appearance, but she still had recognized him instantly, even from the behind. He was her son, after all. But now that she looked closer, she could see traces in him, of things that hadn't been there when he had left- and it was more than just a dyed streak of hair or a sudden tattoo.

"I, well, that's..." Danny backed up a little, freeing himself from his mother's grasp. "I don't fully remember myself. It's all kind of a vague, hazy blur." He lied. It would be better if it were true, but that was not the case.

"You can't remember?" Maddie asked him, frowning deeply. "Then why did you leave at first, Danny?" She asked, placing a hand on his arm. She too, took note of how cold he was, and sucked in a breath. "Oh Danny, you're freezing! Jack, quick, let's go to the kitchen and make some hot chocolate to warm him up."

"No, it's not a big deal." Danny assured her, but was ushered into the kitchen nonetheless.

Sam frowned, watching her old friend. It looked almost as if his parent's worry and concern for him, as well as their affection, was puzzling him. But why would that be the case? Wasn't it natural that parents cared for their children? Even her parents, who often didn't listen to her, did care for her. And yet Danny looked as if he was expecting some kind of other reaction from them.

"Mom? Dad? Why is the front door open?" Jazz asked as she arrived, shutting it behind her. Frowning when she didn't see her parents, but hearing movement from the kitchen, she walked towards it, putting her bag and scarf down on the couch as she went. "What's going on?" She asked, then paused, her brain coming to a quick halt. Quickly, it accounted for the occupants of the kitchen. There was her mother, who was making hot chocolate, her father, who was searching for marshmallows, and Sam, who was sitting in a chair next to a fourth person.

Jazz's mouth worked for a few minutes, grasping at empty air, before it finally decided to make sound again. "That's-" She said, looking at the person sitting in the chair next to Sam, azure eyes meeting hers. It had changed, to be sure, but it was still a face that she would recognize anywhere. "Danny?" Jazz asked finally.

"Yo." Danny lifted a hand in greeting, flashing her a quick grin, acting as if he had been gone for four hours, as opposed to four years.

"You came back!" Jazz said, elated as she too, quickly came over to embrace him, clutching him tightly to herself. "You finally came home! Oh Danny, I was so worried about you! Where have you been?" She asked, cupping his face in her hands, so overcome with emotion that she didn't notice how uncomfortable he seemed with the physical contact. "What happened to your hair? And when did you get _this?_" She asked, placing a finger over the hawk shaped tattoo.

"C'mon, Jazz, lay off a little." Danny pulled back from her grasp, and his older sister caught the look of discomfort on his face- and ever so briefly, of confusion? She caught something in his gaze that looked strangely familiar, and yet she couldn't quite place it, an emotion that she couldn't peg at the moment. "Like I've been telling everyone else already, I don't really have any answers to those questions. Cripes sake, how many times am I going to have to answer the same question, I mean come _on _people." He rolled his eyes.

Danny blinked then, noticing that the room had fallen a bit silent at his words. Was that out of character for him- or the old him, at any rate? He pondered briefly. "I-sorry." He half apologized, not really meaning it. "I'm just a little tired, that's all. If it's all the same to you guys, do you mind if I just get some sleep or something?" He asked them. When he caught their nervous looks, he heaved a sigh, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm not going to _go _anywhere, I'm just- I'm just tired, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. And I know this is all very emotional and everything and touching, and I've missed you guys as well, but I feel like I'm going to fall asleep on my feet here or something."

"Oh, right of course Danny." Maddie smiled at him a little. "You must be exhausted. Oh just look, you have bags underneath your eyes even." She frowned a little, peering at them. She hadn't even noticed them earlier. "Your room is still as you left it. It might be a little dusty though, I hope that won't be a problem." She said.

"No, no problem." Danny assured her, getting up from the table. "I'll manage." Nodding his head, he departed from the kitchen, leaving friends and family behind.

As he left, Jazz watched him curiously, eyebrow raised. Everyone else might not notice it, but she sure did- there was something _off _about the way Danny acted. Something that she didn't feel a four year absence and a memory loss could entirely explain. And for some reason, Jazz got the strangest feeling that his claims of not remembering anything for that four year stretch was a lie, which made her wonder further what he had gotten himself involved in during this time period. Why had he left in the first place, she wondered? He was mum on that.

Well, she would get answers from him soon enough, she figured. It _was _true, after all, that he looked tired, in a way that was more than just not having gotten sleep for one night. Rather, it looked like a lack of sleep was a recurrent problem for him. Insomnia? Nightmares, perhaps, but nightmares about what, exactly?

Whatever the case, Jazz was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Man, it's like twenty questions down there or something." Danny muttered to himself, ascending the stairs up to where his old room had been. He had just wanted to come to Amity Park and bring Sam back to his new home with him, but no, Nazami had firmly insisted that he needed to properly return home. "That's why I didn't want to come back here, geez." He said to himself, rolling his eyes.

Making it to the top of the stairs, he stopped in front of his old room. Danny found himself pausing in front of it, half hesitating to enter it. He strangely felt like he was intruding on it, even though it was, technically, his room. It was the room that belonged to his old self though, he thought, which why, he supposed, that it didn't seem quite like his own anymore. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, he grabbed the handle and opened it.

His mother wasn't kidding about the dust. Just opening up the door caused it to stir, and Danny found himself sneezing. Stepping into the room, he flicked on the light, which faltered a bit, before staying on. He frowned as he glanced around it, finding everything inside covered with a fine layer of dust. It looked almost as if it had been left completely untouched for the last four years, nobody able to bring themselves to enter it after they'd thoroughly checked it for any clues as to his disappearance.

"Should have left a note or something." Danny muttered. Of course, he hadn't been planning on staying away for four years when he had left, but fate had other plans for him. "Man, they could have at least cleaned or something." He said, shutting the door behind him and locking it. Running his hand over his old desk, he grimaced, noting that said hand was now covered in dust. "Ugh, am I gonna have to clean all of this?" He groaned. "Fuckin' hell, I hate cleaning."

He paused then, tilting his head to one side, taking in how strange it was that everything in his room was unchanged from how he recalled it. It was like time in here had stopped, it was eerie, almost. Sighing, he tossed his duffel bag to the side, leaning down to unzip it and pulling out what few things he owned now out of it. He didn't have a whole lot of stuff- in the Ghost Zone, most of it was necessary, and he'd only been back in the human world for maybe around two or three months. Most of what he owned, including the clothing he wore now, was lifted from various places, a ghostly five fingered discount, if you will.

Yawning, he flopped back on the bed, instantly regretting that, as it sent up another wave of dust that had him coughing. He groaned when it finally stopped, running a hand through his hair and pulling off his cap, tossing it to the side, landing on his old desk. "This is fuckin' weird." He mumbled to himself, lying back down on his bed and staring at his ceiling. "Am I even gonna be able to sleep in this place?" He asked himself, heaving a sigh. "Well, not like I got much better sleep in some of the ritziest hotels in the world, so I don't think location has much to do with it." He reasoned.

Sitting back up, Danny reached down to pull off his combat boots, tossing them aside. He continued to talk to himself as he tossed them aside, and went to crack open a window, grabbing the bed sheets and shaking them out. He stopped on his way back to his bed, however, pausing as he noticed a picture of him, Sam, and Tucker, that they had taken on their first day of high school. Frowning, he picked it up, looking it over for awhile, before his eyes narrowed, a wave of frustration overcoming him. Griping the picture frame tighter, he hurled it against the nearest wall, the frame and glass alike both shattering apart under the force. This seemed to strangely satisfy him, and he grinned to himself, lying back down on his old bed. Despite his earlier misgivings, he found himself quickly slipping into unconsciousness.

* * *

He woke to the smell of blood, drenched in cold sweat. Trying to steady himself, it took him quite some time for him to realize that the smell was not actually coming from anywhere in the house, but only his lingering memories, triggered by nightmares. Heaving a sigh, he leaned against the backboard of his bed, closing his eyes again, trying to shut out the images that flashed across them. Placing a hand on his head, he groaned, thunking it lightly against the backboard. "Fuck's sake. If it's not one thing, it's another." He mumbled, getting out of the bed.

Glancing outside the window, he noticed that it appeared to be rather late at night by now. He had been asleep for awhile, actually, longer than he usually could sleep. For the first time in a long time, Danny felt strangely refreshed, save for his rude awakening. It wouldn't last long, he thought.

Tilting his head, Danny listened to the sleeping sounds of the house, rolling his eyes when he could hear his father's snores from his room. Grabbing his combat boots, he tugged them back on, suddenly finding himself being stifled with this old room, traces of a person he barely knew anymore all around him. Closing his eyes, tucking his hands into his pockets, he let himself turn intangible, slipping through the floorboards and down into the living room. There he stopped, turning towards the stairwell that lead to the basement.

Where _it _was.

Danny's eyes narrowed as he moved silently for the stairwell, heading down into his parent's basement. It too, was exactly how he had remembered it, perhaps a bit more messy. But the lab's contents didn't much catch his eye for the moment, instead, he found them drawn towards the swirling portal at the end of the wall. He hadn't even looked at it since the accident, this was the first time in four years that Danny had come face to face with the thing that had turned his life upside down, and changed him from human to something _else_.

He felt an urge rising in him, to destroy it, to break it, to erase it from his life altogether. But no, he was going to need it later, he reasoned with himself, forcing down the urge. No, it would look too strange if the portal were destroyed on the first day he had come back home. But it was tempting, so very tempting. If he had never tried to fix this blasted thing for his blasted parents, then everything would be fine. Gritting his teeth, another wave of anger came across him, and he took it out on the nearest wall, giving it a hard punch, the steel bending around his fist, making a nice carter in the wall.

"Not enough, huh." Danny gritted his teeth, clenching his fist as he pulled it back. Turning away from the portal, he headed back up the stairs, and into the living room. Locating a clock, he found that it was one in the morning, no wonder everyone else was fast asleep, he thought. Looking around the house, Danny heaved a sigh, lightly kicking the edge of the couch, before he flopped down on it, staring up at the ceiling again.

"What the hell am I even doing here?" He asked himself, turning his head so that his gaze fell on the photographs lined up over the fireplace. "I don't belong here anymore. Damnit, I really shouldn't have come back."

* * *

Maddie Fenton had woken up bright and early that morning, humming lightly to herself as she got ready for the day, trying to keep it down so as to not wake anyone else. She hadn't felt like this in a long time, everything having been dampened after her son vanished. But he was home, finally home to her! Granted, there were many strange things, many things that he wasn't telling them, and something else besides that nagged at her- but she tried to put them all aside, at least for the moment. She was just too elated, too excited to see her son home, that she almost couldn't contain herself.

Which was part of why she had woken up so early in the first place. What was a better way to celebrate than to make a breakfast feast? She would make all of Danny's favorites, which she hoped that he still liked.

The first one to come down her was Jazz, as it usually was. She took one look at what her mother was cooking up, and laughed a little, offering to help her. Mother and daughter together completed the breakfast, and after setting everything out on the table, they split up to go wake the Fenton men up. Maddie went to rouse her husband, and Jazz was tasked with waking Danny. Jazz seemed rather pleased with this task, thinking it would give her a chance to observe her little brother a bit further.

"Danny?" Jazz knocked lightly on his door, finding it unlocked this time. When she had gone to check on him to tell him that dinner was ready, it was locked, and she could hear him sleeping inside. Had he woken up sometime during the night and unlocked it, she wondered?

Quietly opening the door, Jazz peered into the room. It was dark, the lights off, but she could still spot Danny, asleep on his bed. She noted with a bit of amusement that he had fallen asleep with the covers off, and upside down on the bed, even. Suppressing a giggle, she carefully made her way over to his bed, careful not to make too much noise. "Danny?" Jazz whispered, leaning down and placing a hand on his shoulder, moving to shake him awake.

That, apparently, was a mistake.

Jazz felt a strong hand clamp around her right wrist, griping it hard enough to leave a bruise. She yelped in pain, unable to help herself, and suddenly found her head hitting the ground, a weight on top of her body. Crimson eyes stared down at her, pupils retracted in a manner that reminded her of a snake's. On top of her was her brother, another hand having clamped around her throat, currently cutting off her air. She found herself gasping, struggling to get out from underneath him, when all at once, the pressure on her was gone.

Coughing and gasping for breath, Jazz sat herself up, rubbing her throat, which was sure to bruise as well. "D-Danny?" She choked out, peering up at her brother.

"Fucking hell, Jazz!" Danny spat out, his eyes having returned to normal. No, she had probably just been seeing things there, Jazz quickly convinced herself, triggering some sort of natural reflex to deny anything remotely supernatural, in response to her own parent's obsession with ghosts. "What did you think you were doing? Don't surprise me that, for fuck's sake I thought you were-"

"Thought I was _what, _Danny?" Jazz asked, getting to her feet, taking in and letting out a deep breath. Had Danny always been that strong? And that fast, for a matter, this all had happened in the blink of an eye. She didn't recall him being so physically gifted when he had left, rather she recalled him as having nearly failed gym class. "No apology either, I see." Jazz noted out loud, rubbing her throat again. "What was that you said earlier, that you didn't remember anything? What the hell kind of reflex was _that_, Danny? I was just trying to wake you up for breakfast."

"Well maybe you shouldn't touch people without warning!" Danny hissed, glaring at her. "Maybe I'm not any good with that, ya think of that, Jazz?" He paused for a moment, visibly appearing to battle back his temper and let out a deep sigh. "Look, I'm sorry I guess. I didn't mean to do that. Just don't do it again. I don't like people touching me." He mumbled, the last line barely audible.

Jazz looked at her younger brother, her expression skeptical. Crossing her arms in front of her, she observed him quietly. She didn't recall her younger brother having temper problems either, not to mention, _Jesus Christ_, that reflex, she thought he actually wanted to kill her for a second there. He _had _apologized, though not until after he had brought it up, she noted, and wondered if he would have ever done it on his own. There was some genuine regret, at least, that crossed his face once he fought back his temper, she noted. It was a sharp change from how he had acted yesterday, and Jazz briefly contemplated whether that was some kind of acting, as she thought it had been at the time. At this point, she had already completely forced all memory of the crimson eyes from her mind, not even factoring it into her thoughts.

"Danny." Jazz spoke his name, in a way that drew his attention towards her. "What exactly is it that you aren't telling us? You know we're you're family, and we'll understand if you got yourself mixed up into anything bad, right?" She asked him.

"Pssh." Danny rolled his eyes at that, not seeming to buy it for a second. "Thanks for the reminder Jazz, but like I said," he locked eyes with her. "Memory is all a big blur."

"Un-huh." Jazz said, looking thoroughly unconvinced. The two siblings found themselves locked into something of a staring contest then, neither of them willing to budge on the matter. Finally, Jazz let out a frustrated sigh, throwing up her hands. "Alright, fine. I'll let you off today, Danny, just because mom and dad are so happy to have you home, and I don't want to dampen their mood. But we _are _talking about this, little brother."

"You keep telling yourself that." Danny told her, rolling his eyes.

"Danny? Jazz? Everything okay in here?" Maddie asked, peering into the room. Jazz found herself subconsciously pulling up the collar of her pajamas, to conceal the bruise she knew was probably already forming on it. Turtlenecks for her, for awhile, she thought. "Breakfast is ready and your father is up." She told them with a smile.

"Oh, great!" Jazz smiled at her mother, before shooting a look at Danny. "I'm going to clean up first, actually, I got a little bit messy cooking. But I'll gone you all later, so make sure dad saves some for me, okay?" She asked her mother.

"Sure thing, sweetie!" Maddie said with a smile, watching as her daughter made for the bathroom. She turned back towards her son, a bright smile still on her face. She had been a little bit worried that he wouldn't still be here when she woke up in the morning, and she was glad to find that wasn't the case. Casting her eyes about the room that she hadn't seen in at least three and a half years, Maddie paused, looking at the sparse pile of clothes on top of the dresser. "Danny, honey, is that everything you have?" She asked him, concern seeping into her voice. Exactly what kind of life had her son been living to have so few possessions?

"Oh, yeah, kind of." Danny told her. "I don't have a lot of stuff."

"Well I can see that!" Maddie frowned. "I don't suppose any of your old clothes will fit you, either. You sure have sprung up, Danny! Those are your father's genes in you. I always told you that you would get taller, and you never believed me." She laughed a little, smiling at her son. "Then, how about you and I go shopping for some new clothes today? And look at how worn out your shoes are, are they really your only pair?" She asked him. "Oh, and then we have to do something about your education, honey, have you even been to school at all in the last four years?" She shook her head. "No of course not, that's a silly question. Oh there's just so much that's going to need to be done!"

"Wait whoa, back up there." Danny said, holding up his hands. "Look, shopping's fine and all I guess." That wasn't entirely a lie, it would be sort of nice to have some new stuff. "But school? I can't go back to school- I haven't been in four years, and there's no way I'm sitting in a class with a bunch of freshmen." He told her.

Not like he was planning on sticking around that long anyways.

"Oh, don't worry honey!" Maddie assured him. "We'll talk with Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama, and I'm sure we can work something out with them. You need your education, after all, young man." Maddie said, waving a finger at him, then smiling. "But for now, why don't we head downstairs and get some food? I've made all of your favorites!"

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but the idea of food was too tempting to resist. "Well, alright, I guess." He said after awhile, yawning a bit as he followed his mother downstairs to the kitchen. There was some part of him, he supposed, that enjoyed being back home, if only a little. But he couldn't stay here, he knew that much. The earlier incident with his sister had proved that much.

Besides, there was a reason why he couldn't stay in one place for a long time, at least not in the human world. He had to get what he came for, and then move on, back into the Ghost Zone.

Otherwise, Danny had a feeling that _she _would find him.

And that was something he didn't want.


	2. What, Not Who

Author's Note: And here's chapter two! Actually had a different ending in mind, but it just seemed like a really good place to end the chapter. So, I'll save what I had planned for the next chapter! No need to rush, after all. Rushing is bad.

Once again, Danny Phantom isn't mine! Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed chapter one, y'all are the best, and y'all make me feel all warm and fluffy inside. So enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions

Chapter Two: What, Not Who

"So, exactly _what_ is that?"

"That," Maddie Fenton began, holding up a finger. "Is a ghost."

"Well, I figured _that_ much." Danny told her, shooting his mother a look. He wasn't an idiot. "The whole floating in the air thing sort of gave it away- that and it keeps screaming it's the 'box ghost'. More like, what I want to know is- what's the deal with the boxes?"

"Obsession." Maddie told her son, pulling an ecto pistol out from her hazmat suit. "It likes boxes, it can control boxes. That sort of thing. Well, it's pretty much harmless, mostly annoying if anything." As if to emphasize her point, the ghost hunter managed to successfully defeat the ghost, sucking it into a Fenton Thermos within the blink of an eye. The people in the shopping mall hadn't even really stopped going on about their normal business during this time period, as if nothing strange was happening that they should be worried about.

"Boxes?" Danny asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow. "It's obsession is _boxes_."

"Most likely his death was in some way related to boxes. I do admit that it's not the most sensible of obsessions... but there are stranger ones still." Maddie told her son, a bright smile on her face. This was the first time her son had shown any interest in her work at all, she noted, and it pleased her in a way that she didn't fully expect. Holstering the Fenton Thermos, she made a mental note to send the spook back to the Ghost Zone once she got home. Right now, she had much more important things to do.

Like going shopping with her son- and hopefully, _hopefully_, reconnecting in the process.

The Fenton family hadn't managed to get any more information out of Danny since yesterday, although Maddie and Jazz had spent most of the early morning asking him questions. He had replied with an either 'I don't know' or an 'I don't remember' to most of their questions, and by the end of it, her daughter was about ready to pull out her hair. Maddie was less infuriated about the whole situation than Jazz, much more ready to accept the fact that Danny had acquired some form of amnesia in regards to the past four years. She couldn't see any reason why her son might lie to her, after all. He'd never done so in the past. They had always shared secrets with each other!

Jazz seemed to think that Danny had gotten himself into some serious trouble, and was lying to cover things up. Maddie didn't think so, however- oh sure, she thought it was likely that her son had gotten into some kind of mess. He'd gone missing over night for one thing, so it was hard to believe that wasn't the case. But she did genuinely think he didn't remember much about it. After all, surely her son was smart enough to know that his parents would help him if he had gotten caught up in a situation, right? Of course they would! He was their son, after all.

"Hm. And this happens here in Amity Park all the time?" Danny inquired, arching an eyebrow. He was of course, no stranger to ghosts, and he had heard that Amity Park had become something of a Ghost Central since he had been away- but seeing it in action was another thing entirely. That, and he hadn't exactly expected that the first ghost he would encounter after returning home would have been something like that. He tried to recall if he had ever seen this 'Box Ghost' in the Ghost Zone before, and failed. He didn't seem like the sort of ghost that Danny would remember, at any rate.

"Sure does!" Maddie said, her tone chipper. "Your father and I have been hunting them for the past four years. There's the Red Hunter too, and the Guys in White," she frowned, noticing a strange look briefly wash over her son's face as she mentioned the government funded ghost hunting group, though it was gone as quickly as it came, "...but that's pretty much everyone, I think."

"Not a very long list." Danny observed.

Maddie frowned a little at that. "No, I suppose it isn't. But we are more than enough." She smiled at her son. "After all, your father and I make a great team!"

Danny seemed to quirk an eyebrow at that, looking rather incredulous. "Really? If you ask me, dad couldn't catch a ghost to save his life."

"Oh come now honey, Jack's a good ghost hunter!" Maddie scolded him lightly, crossing her arms. "Sure he has his problems, but he's hardly incompetent. Oh, here we are!" She said, finding the right shop. "Let's see about expanding your wardrobe some, hm? No son of mine is going to go with only three changes of clothes to live off of!" She glanced briefly over towards Danny as she said this, concern evident in her gaze. Opening her mouth to say something, she then frowned, apparently thinking better of it, and shut it again.

Danny hardly took notice of this, busy grimacing at the busy crowd inside the store. What the hell were they all doing here on a Thursday morning? Didn't these people have places to be, jobs or something? Crowds were only good for one thing, and that was for losing people in them. Otherwise, Danny didn't care much for them. Too many strange people, too many unknown factors, and everything was always much too close for his tastes.

"Come on, honey, let's go!" Maddie smiled at him, lightly grabbing hold of his wrist. As if my instinct, Danny reacted, quickly snapping her hand away the moment it made contact with him. A strange look passed through his eyes, equal parts apprehension and anger, but it faded quickly as he suddenly seemed to realize exactly where it was and who it was that was trying to touch him.

"Danny?" Maddie frowned deeply, rubbing a hand over her wrist. That had actually _hurt_, she thought, and she was more than a little troubled by the expression on her son's face. What troubled her more was that she recognized the action as a conditioned reflex, and couldn't help but wonder what her son had been going through to acquire such a reflex. "Are you okay?"

Her son seemed to grumble a little, shoving his hand back inside of his pocket, avoiding eye contact with his mother. "Yeah, sorry. Just- could you _not _touch me?" Although he was asking her, it sounded a lot more like a demand, Maddie noted. She'd never recalled Danny taking that tone with her before- they had always been so close! "I don't exactly like it."

It was true enough, he didn't really care that much for being touched. He had prepped himself for the outpouring of emotion at the Fenton household yesterday, and Sam was an exemption, of course, but he couldn't get himself used to the casual day to day gestures that his family made. Physical contact for him usually equated to bad things, so he had all the reason in the world to avoid it, even if he knew that he wasn't in that place anymore. It was something akin to instinct, burned into him for the last four years. Well- three years, he thought, he had only been there for three years. It had felt like a lot longer than that, however, he had completely lost track of time there, unable to tell even when if it was day or night.

"Alright, Danny, of course." Maddie frowned, concern entering her gaze again. "I wouldn't want to do anything that would upset you, honey. Is there anything else you would like me to know?" She asked, her tone making it clear that she was trying to ask him _why _physical contact made him uncomfortable.

"No, that's all." Danny said, making it clear in his tone that it was all he was going to say on the matter. When his mother sighed and gave him a bit of a sad smile, he didn't flinch, but instead turned away from her gaze.

"Alright then. Let's just go and get you some clothes, okay? Oh, and maybe some new toiletries, the ones you have look awfully beat up, and I would hardly think you would want to use a four year old toothbrush." Maddie said. "After that, I've made an appointment to meet with Mr. Lancer this afternoon, after school lets out. Maybe you'll even be able to see Sam and Tucker while we're there!" She told him, and smiled a little when his expression clearly brightened at the mention of his friends, unaware that he was only responding to the mention of one of the names, and not the both.

"Do we really have to do the whole thing with Mr. Lancer, though? I mean, I'm eighteen, I've been out of school for _four years._ I'm not exactly sure I'm going to be catching up any time soon, and like hell I'm starting as a freshman again." Danny rolled his eyes. "Why don't we just forget about the whole thing?" He suggested. He hadn't even liked school _before_, but having to put up with the incessant chattering of the A List was hardly something he wanted to even try to put up with now.

"Of course we do, sweetie! Your education is your future!" Maddie told him, as they headed back towards the men's section. Once there, she began browsing through the clothes herself, apparently missing the way Danny rolled his eyes, and the way he muttered underneath his breath that she had a hell's chance of picking out clothes for him. "Like I told you, we'll work something out. Tutoring to catch you up after school, extra credit projects where you need them- you'll be back on track in no time!" She said, sounding rather perky. "Of course, you'll probably have to take a placement test, or something of that nature. But I'm sure you'll be fine, Danny! You were always a bright boy, after all."

_Not bright enough to avoid being captured. _Danny quipped in his head, idly browsing through the racks. Well, it wasn't like he had even known that the government actually employed ghost hunters at the time- I mean, who would have thought? His parents might have been ghost hunters, but everyone else in the world had always thought of them as crackpots. Apparently, however, that wasn't quite right, and he supposed that now that Amity Park had become something of a Ghost Central, there were more and more people believing in ghosts these days. He couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing for his secret- at least it would be easier to convince Sam of what he was planning on telling her anyways.

Oh she wouldn't be getting the truth, of course not. Just the right words to convince her to leave Amity Park with him, and come stay with him. And he didn't think it would be hard, after all, they had been close, right? He remembered them being close, at least. He had feelings for her before the portal accident, feelings for her which he had realized during their middle school graduation. He just never had the courage to bring it up after that.

Well, with what he had been through, somehow telling a girl that you liked her didn't seem scary at all anymore.

* * *

He had seen it earlier, of course, when he had been waiting for Sam outside of the school, but Danny hadn't exactly paid much attention to it. Casper High, like everything else in this damn town, hadn't changed at all since he was last here. Well, that wasn't entirely true, there was a strange new addition that he had noticed, a metal box on the top of the roof, one with his family name printed on it. When he asked his mother about it, she told him that it was a ghost shield, that she and his father had installed at the school a year and a half ago. It was meant to protect the students inside the building should a full scale ghost invasion occur.

Unlikely, Danny thought, there were only a hand full of ghosts in the Ghost Zone who even gave a hoot about the human world, and even less who were malicious enough to plot a full scale invasion. Of those, the number that actually had the means and connections to do so could be counted on one hand. Pariah Dark, possibly Walker, that weird one who looked like a blue vampire, and the Fright Knight could simply make his own army of horrors. Of those four, two of them were sealed away, and he wasn't really sure if the other two even had any motivation to launch such an attack.

Danny got the feeling that his mother assumed that ghosts were somehow a massive, monolithic block, which was hardly the case. But then, his parents making those kinds of assumptions about ghosts had been why he had left home in the first place, because he was worried about what they would do if they found out about him. Of course, it occurred to him now that he was much worse off than he was when he had left home, and that he was probably a good deal closer to the types of ghosts his parents babbled on about these days.

It didn't really seem to bother him that much anymore, though.

He wondered when that had happened.

Putting that thought from his mind, Danny glanced back over towards his mother, who was locking up the Fenton RV- or the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, Danny added, smirking a little. That was his father's name for it, at least, one that even his mother seemed more than a little embarrassed about. Which was saying something, because she was the one who had slapped a label on an ordinary wooden bat and dubbed it the 'Fenton Anti-Creep Stick'. From the way she had eyed it whenever Jazz had brought up boys since she entered high school, Danny got the feeling that the creeps in question weren't supposed to be ghosts this time.

"Looks like we're here a bit early!" Maddie declared, checking her watch. "Let's go ahead and head to Mr. Lancer's office and wait for him there."

"Are you sure I can't just go find Sam?" Danny asked. And then, as an afterthought, in case it sounded strange to leave him out- "And Tucker?" He added.

"More than likely they're still in class. I know you're eager to see your friends Danny, but their education is just as important as yours, so we shouldn't interrupt them." Maddie lectured him.

On any other day, Danny would have just blown her off, and would have sneaked off invisibly to go find Sam. But then he recalled he was trying to downplay his ghost powers here, not trying to bring attention to himself more than he needed. There were only hand full of ghosts that could recognize him in human form, but he didn't want to give any of the smarter ones that might be in Amity Park to have a chance to put two and two together.

"Fine, Fine." Danny mumbled, not pleased with this. It was hardly something worth fighting her over, though. Following behind his mother, they headed towards Mr. Lancer's office. As they did, the school bell rang, indicating that the day was over, and Danny winced a little at the sound, all the louder due to his increased hearing. The students pouring out of class didn't help very much either, both with the noise they brought with them, and the sudden rush of the crowd. People brushed against him, the once wide hallway now suddenly feeling crowded, and it was all Danny could do to hold himself in check, biting down on his lip, clenching his fists inside of his pockets to ensure that he didn't attempt to forcefully break the next arm that brushed against him.

_It's okay, they're just students. They aren't related to her or that place, just average, everyday students. There's not a single one here that could even take you in a fight, Fenton. _He mentally told himself, focusing instead on his mother's back. Somehow, they made it to Mr. Lancer's office without any incident, but by that point, some people had noticed the strange, rather out of place looking student. Maddie Fenton, they recognized, but not the strange boy that seemed to be following her. Not a single one managed to put two and two together and connect him with the missing Danny Fenton, confirming his idea that he had changed so completely that it was nigh impossible to recognize him anymore.

Or at least, everyone aside from Sam and his family- that had only taken a moment.

Taking a seat inside the office, he stretched out his long legs, watching as his mother took a seat next to them. Mr. Lancer had said to meet them here, which must have meant that he was coming soon. In the back of his mind, Danny wondered if the overweight teacher had finally lost the last of his hair or not. Vaguely, he recalled making a bet with Tucker whether or not he would have gone completely bald by the end of their high school years.

The door opened up a few minutes later, and Mr. Lancer entered the room. Danny was unable to avoid glancing up at the top of his head, only to note in frustration that the owed Tucker ten dollars.

Mr. Lancer, meanwhile, was having a very different reaction. He hadn't exactly forgotten Daniel Fenton, the student who in ninth grade, had gone missing during the middle of the school year. A teacher never does forget a student who vanishes or dies, not a teacher of any note, anyways. He had been delighted to say the least when he got a phone call from Maddie Fenton, informing him that their son had at long last returned to him, and she would like to discuss with him what they should do about his schooling, since it seemed that he had none of the course of the past four years or so. He'd quickly arranged a meeting with her for the very next day, hastily turning over his detention duties to Ms. Testlaff.

Mr. Lancer wasn't _exactly_ expecting the same fourteen year old boy he remembered, to be sure. Daniel Fenton had been gone for four years, after all, and a lot of things could happen during four years, especially considering the mysterious circumstances under which he had vanished. But what Mr. Lancer had not expected was what who he saw sitting next to Maddie Fenton when he had entered the room. He recalled Daniel as being something of a social outcast, good-natured, a bit clumsy, especially in the month before his disappearance, but overall a rather sweet boy. Normal, or as normal as you could get when your parents were professional ghost hunters.

This was something else entirely. Oh sure, when he looked for it, Mr. Lancer could see that this was, in fact, the same person- they had the same facial structure, same eye color, same hair color, white streak excluded. Said white streak was just the tip of the iceberg, really, and Mr. Lancer couldn't help but think that Daniel seemed to match a bit more up to his goth friend, Samantha. No, rather, he didn't think goth was exactly the right word for it- rather, somewhere between Miss Manson and that- that, what was the word again? Ah yes, that punk boy, Spike, who had graduated last year. A mishmash of punk and goth, he supposed, hardly the style which the boy had been into at fourteen.

And then there was the body language. The body language on this young man was completely alien to what Mr. Lancer recalled of Daniel Fenton. He would have never guessed that they were one and the same if this were the only information he had been provided. What on Earth had happened to him in the past four years to change him so drastically? Not any normal series of events, he supposed, and his brain automatically drifted towards gangs. But surely Daniel had more sense than to get mixed up with that sort of thing, didn't he? Then again, perhaps it hadn't exactly been much of a choice, he thought.

"Mr. Lancer?" Maddie spoke up, and he quickly realized that she had been calling him for awhile now, as he was lost in thought. Danny snorted, a smirk gracing his lips, an expression that was likewise alien on his face.

"Oh yes, pardon me, Mrs. Fenton." Mr. Lancer said, taking a seat and smiling at her. "So I understand we're here in order to discuss the recommencement of Daniel's," his gaze flickered over towards the boy, who caught it and held it in a way that almost reminded the English Literature teacher of a predator watching prey, and forced himself to look away from it. "...schooling." He finished.

"Yes." Maddie nodded her head, smiling at the teacher. "I know this isn't exactly a normal situation, Mr. Lancer, so I'm open to whatever you think we should do."

"Yes well." Mr. Lancer began, folding his hands in front of him. "I agree that it is. A placement test will be in order, although that will give us a few days to put together. In the meantime, perhaps it would be best if Daniel shadowed one of his old friends, since I'm sure you want to get him back in the groove of things as quickly as possible. I'm sure that's what Daniel wants as well." He said, glancing over towards the boy, then suddenly wishing that he hadn't. There was something in his expression that said that he very much didn't want that, which was quickly replaced by a calculating expression, and a sudden grin that Mr. Lancer didn't like the looks of.

"Could that friend be Sam?" Danny spoke up, eyes gleaming at the prospect.

For some reason, in spite of knowing that he and Samantha had been close, Mr. Lancer strangely found himself wanting to say no. Logic, however, told him that it couldn't be Tucker Foley, who had gone on to attend several upper level classes in his senior year, when he had suddenly decided to get his act together, as if he had been planning this all along. Sam, bright as she was, hadn't really entered any, except for an upper level history course, and she was the more logical option of the two. "Yes, well," Mr. Lancer hesitated a little, tearing his gaze away from Danny's. "I suppose that would be the best choice, as long as she's up for it. I'll expect to see you here then bright and early tomorrow, Daniel."

"Oh don't worry, Mr. Lancer. You will." Danny assured him, flashing him a grin, one that again, Mr. Lancer didn't like the looks of.

He had dealt with many a delinquent student in his years as a teacher, and right now, Daniel Fenton was reminding him of all of them. And perhaps a little more, he couldn't help but notice. There overall seemed to be something _off _about him, something in his body language that screamed 'bad news' to the teacher. He couldn't imagine that his mother didn't notice it, but perhaps she was just trying very hard not to see it, this being her son and all.

"Very good, then." Mr. Lancer nodded his head, looking back at Maddie. "We'll contact you as soon as we have the placement test written up, Mrs. Fenton. In the meantime, we'll be keeping track of Daniel's progress as he shadows Miss Manson. Would you like me to write up a list of tutors in the area, I know quite a few who are quite skilled at their jobs." He told her.

"Oh yes, that would be wonderful, Mr. Lancer." Maddie told him with a smile. The balding teacher nodded, pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen from his desk. After scribbling down a few names and numbers on it, he got up, and handed it to Mrs. Fenton. She took it, standing up herself. "Is this everything?" She asked him.

"For the moment, yes." Mr. Lancer nodded his head, noting as Danny stood up. He was a bit taken aback by how much he had grown in his absence, now easily a few inches taller than him. He'd always remembered him as being on something of the short side, both of his friends being taller than him. Then again, his father was rather tall, so Mr. Lancer supposed that this factor could have simply been explained by the passage of time, and also by puberty. "If there isn't anything else, you two are free to go."

"Well then, thank you for your time, Mr. Lancer." Maddie smiled, offering him her hand, which he took, giving it a firm shake. When he tried to extend the same courtesy to Danny, he found the boy merely glowering at the hand, his own still firmly rooted inside of his pockets. "_Danny_." Maddie hissed underneath her breath, glancing over at her son. "Don't be rude, it's just a handshake."

Danny glowered back at his mother, but merely rolled his eyes, pulling out a hand and giving Mr. Lancer a brief hand shake. The teacher noticed two things from this, one- that Mr. Fenton had a _very _strong grip, and Mr. Lancer feared that he might have a hand shaped bruise appear on his own later that day. And two, that Daniel Fenton was _freezing._

"Portrait of Dorian Gray, Daniel, you're absolutely _freezing_!" Mr. Lancer exclaimed, taken aback. Now that was something that he knew wasn't normal, in fact, if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that he had just stuck his hand in a bowl of ice instead of having just shook someone's hand.

"Really?" Maddie frowned, pursing her lips as she moved to grab Danny's hand for herself, all but forgetting his request from earlier in the day. He had been cold yesterday, but Maddie had assumed it was because he had just come in from the cold. It _was _winter, after all. Danny flinched from the sudden contact, ripping his hand from her grasp once more.

"I _said," _He half growled, "Don't touch me."

"Alice in Wonderland, Daniel, that's no way to speak to your mother!" Mr. Lancer interjected, eyes narrowing. "She was simply concerned."

"Shut it, Lancer." Danny glared over at him. "And it's _Danny, _not Daniel." He corrected him, before glancing back at his mother. "Look, if that's everything, I'm going to go find Sam, okay?" He told the two of them, giving them one last glower before he left the room.

Once he was gone, the door slammed shut behind him, Mr. Lancer glanced over at Maddie. "Perhaps, if I might be so bold as to recommend some sessions with the school psychologist as well? She has a very highly regarded reputation." He told her. He didn't want to say it out loud, but it was clear that Daniel- _Danny- _Fenton had more than just a few issues.

Maddie frowned, watching her son storm off. "Perhaps that might be a good idea." She admitted. "To be honest, Mr. Lancer, we still haven't been able to get any information from Danny about why he vanished in the first place, or what he's been doing." She confessed to him. "We don't want to press him, because as you can see..." She frowned, gesturing towards the door. "...pressing him doesn't get good results. He claims he doesn't remember, but Jazz isn't so sure. And I- I'm not really sure what I believe. Danny used to tell me everything, so I find it hard to believe he would be willingly keeping something from me."

They didn't know? Mr. Lancer thought, eyes narrowing at this new found information. "Well, I'm sure in time, he'll tell you." He tried to reassure the concerned parent, likewise a part of his job. "But if I might be so bold as to say, I'm concerned about your son's case, deeply so. That level of drastic change is hardly normal." He pointed out.

"I'm well aware." Maddie told him, frowning. "Perhaps you're right though, perhaps he will tell us with time. It might be hard for him to speak about it now." She theorized, and seemed to accept this theory. Pausing for a moment, something still bothering her, she glanced back over towards Mr. Lancer. "Was he really that cold?" He asked him, sounding somewhat uncertain of her own question, as if she was unsure at the moment as to why it held relevance to her.

"Mrs. Fenton, it was as if I had stuck my hand into a bucket of ice." Mr. Lancer told her plainly. "Perhaps a trip to the doctor's would also be in order...?" He suggested. "I'm no health care professional, but that low of a body temperature hardly seems normal."

"No, no it doesn't." Maddie admitted, sighing. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Lancer. I should get going now. You've been more than helpful."

"Of course." He gave her a curt nod, watching as she left.

* * *

Finding Sam had not been that hard.

He recognized her voice when he heard it, even from out of the noise the crowd was making. The fact that he now stood nearly a head taller than most of the crowd sure helped in locating her, Danny hadn't fully realized just how tall he had gotten in the past four years before this. What was he now, at least a little over six feet, he thought. For her part, Sam seemed to catch a glimpse of him as well, and smiled. She had heard from Jazz that her mother and Danny had a meeting after school today, and she had been wondering if she would see him. She had told Tucker as much as well, who had been thrilled at the news that Danny was back- if not a little confused when Sam had described the ways he had changed. All Sam had to do to convince Tucker that it was in fact, their Danny, was mention the fact that he had brought up Tucker's own rather secret passion for sewing.

"Tucker, he's here!" Sam told him, excitedly, as Danny approached them. Tucker looked up as well, catching Danny's gaze, and let out a low whistle.

"I admit I sort of thought you were pulling my leg at first Sam, but wow, he sure has changed." Tucker blinked, more than a little taken aback. However, when the first thing Danny did upon joining them was reach for his wallet and pull out a ten dollar bill, the techno geek couldn't help but grin. "Told'ja he wasn't going to lose the rest of his hair, dude." He said, plucking the bill from his hands, and tucking it back away.

"Yeah, well, don't let it get to your head." Danny said dryly. Of course Tucker would remember the bet, he thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Well, he was always rather fond of money and it wasn't exactly like Danny had much use for it himself, though he did carry some on him. What use did money have when you could simply take whatever you wanted for yourself, for free, with no consequences?

"Did you already have your meeting with Mr. Lancer?" Sam asked, closing her locker.

"Yeah, I'm going to be shadowing you apparently, until they can work out some kind of placement test or whatever." Danny said, rolling his eyes. He couldn't help but hear the murmurs as people noticed that the strange boy who had been walking with Maddie Fenton earlier was now hanging out with Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, the two biggest outcasts at Casper High School. That seemed to be enough for people to begin to put two and two together, some of them having heard rumors that Danny Fenton had returned to Amity Park. Most of them couldn't believe it though, seeing how radically different he looked.

So much for keeping a low profile.

"Looks like you're the center of attention, Danny." Tucker noted, glancing towards the crowd. "I can see why though. But you sure have sprouted! See, didn't I always tell you that you'd get taller? You used to worry about it like all the time." He paused, then grinned a little. "So that's another ten bucks you owe me."

"Okay, _that _is not a bet I remember making." Danny said, glaring at Tucker.

The techno geek merely shrugged, laughing a little. "Can't blame me for trying. Could have gotten two Nasty Burgers off of you, instead of just one!"

"Well, _you _sure haven't changed, Tuck. Still with the yellow and green too, huh?" He asked, taking a note of his attire. "Not to mention the beret."

"Hey, the beret's a trademark!" Tucker protested. "Besides, nobody else wears it as stylishly as me."

"That's because nobody else wears them." Sam chimed in. "Although, you missed it Danny, they did become a fashion trend for like a week."

"Yeah, and I still wore it better than anyone else!" Tucker huffed. "Man, it should have stuck around too. I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to wear such a fine looking hat."

"Weren't you complaining when it was going on, like everyone was ripping off your look?" Sam asked him, shooting her friend a look. "You got so upset about it, you decided to change your image and try to go goth."

_That _caused Danny to snort, staring at Tucker rather incredulously. "You're joking, right? Tucker, _goth_? On what level would _that _work?"

"Oh, I still have some photos!" Sam said cheerfully, pulling out her phone and bringing them up to show Danny, who only laughed more, making a comment about Tucker's hair, which caused the person in question to glower. "He balked when I broke out the black nail polish and lipstick though. It was too much for him." She shrugged, then cast an eye at Danny's own fingernails. "Oh, but I see you've acquired a taste for it, Danny. It looks good on you!"

"Seriously, nail polish, Danny?" Tucker spoke up, glancing at Danny's hands. Danny didn't feel inclined to tell either of them that he wasn't wearing nail polish, and that was just simply the color of his fingernails. "Isn't that a little girly?"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with girly." Sam cut him off. "You say that as if there's something inherently wrong with feminine."

"Aren't you the one who hates pink? And dresses? And all of that princess stuff?" Tucker shot back, arching an eyebrow.

"That's by personal choice, I don't have a problem with anyone else who likes it." Sam said quickly. "At least not anymore." She admitted finally. In some respects, she had been just as shallow and hypocritical as Paulina had been when she was still a freshman. She'd learned to wise up since then, however.

Speaking of which, almost as if simply thinking her name had summoned her, Paulina Sanchez sauntered up. She had held the title of the prettiest girl at Casper High School for four years running now, and had been dating Dash Baxter since their junior year. It was rare for her to take an interest in Sam and Tucker, but apparently the presence of the maybe-stranger, maybe-Danny was enough to spike her curiosity. She wasn't exactly the most _faithful _girlfriend, which caused Sam to feel a strange bit of pity for Dash, who was obviously very devoted to her.

"Yoo-hoo~ Whatever your name is~" Paulina called out, approaching them. Four years of going to the same school together, being in several of the same classes, and Paulina couldn't even be bothered to remember Sam's name. "Who's your friend?"

"Don't you already have a boyfriend, Paulina?" Sam shot back, words dripping with venom.

"Paulina has a boyfriend now?" Danny asked, looking over at Sam, but otherwise outright ignored Paulina. "Is it Dash? I always imagined it was only a matter of time before the two of them hooked up."

"Yeah, it's Dash." Sam nodded her head, before meeting Paulina's eyes. "This, by the way, is Danny. I'm sure you remember him. He asked you to a dance during the first year of high school, and you laughed in his face." She reminded her, quirking an eyebrow as she watched Paulina briefly blanch.

"R-really?" She stammered, stunned by this revelation. "Danny, as in Danny Fenton? The missing kid?"

"Not so much missing anymore." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Present and accounted for." He told her. "But I remember you alright, Paulina. Not interested though." He said, holding up a hand. "Besides, if you're dating someone already, should you really be hitting on other boys?"

Sam let out a low whistle, seemingly pleased that Danny had gotten over his attraction to Paulina. She had always told him that she wasn't exactly the graceful flower that he made her out to be, but it was nice to see that it had finally sunk in. Speaking of boyfriends, however... Glancing up, Sam noticed that Dash Baxter, captain of the Casper High School football team, was now storming over towards them. Suddenly, Sam remembered why she didn't pity Dash _that _much. It was due to his violent fits of jealousy in regards to the other boys that Paulina flirted with.

Which was now directed at Danny, who, Sam noticed, he didn't seem to recognize.

"Hey!" Dash called out, reaching out a hand to grasp Danny's shoulder, fingers digging into it. "What do you think you're doing talking with my-"

And that was about as far as he got before he found himself with an elbow impacting with his gut, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Stumbling back, Dash looked dazed, unclear of what had just happened. Danny whirled around to face him, glaring at the blonde boy, voice low and threatening. If it had been anyone else, anyone else but Dash, he might have forced himself to hold himself in check, but Dash he could not forgive. Even though everything he had put him through now seemed petty in comparison to what that woman had put him through, Danny still hadn't forgotten that he had gone through years of suffering from the bully's hands.

"Dash Baxter." Danny's tone was cold, and it took every bit of willpower he had to keep crimson from seeping into his eyes. "Fancy meeting you again. You still up to your old ways then, I take it? _Charming."_

Dash's expression was blank, not recognizing the person in front of him. But slowly, cogs turned, and things fell into place, especially as he noticed Sam and Tucker there for the first time. "..._Fenton?"_

"Ding ding, we have a winner." Danny said, glowering at him. "I wasn't doing anything with your girlfriend, if that's what you want to know. But don't you _dare_ think you can lay a hand on me again, Dash. I was sick and tired of your bullshit months after you first started, and I'm sure as hell not going to take it anymore now."

There was something- something, in Danny's gaze that made Dash want to turn and run away. Predatory, in a way, but also looking down on him, a look in his eyes that was saying that Dash wasn't even worth his time. That scared him the most, that Danny Fenton- _wimpy _Danny Fenton, was now looking down at him, and what was more, it seemed as if would have been easily able to beat him without even trying. Dash had learned to pick out the weak from the strong, and right now, he suddenly felt the dynamic reverse. Suddenly, he was no longer the strong, picking on the weak, but he was the weak, and he suddenly felt that rather being picked on by the strong, but rather, that he was in actual _mortal danger._

But he was also aware that everyone else in the hallway had stopped, turning to watch them, speechless. The only sounds that Dash could hear were Tucker and Sam trying to convince Danny that Dash wasn't worth his time, that he should leave him alone. Hadn't they once tried to tell him that, when he used to pick on Fenton? That was wrong, this was all wrong- there was no way, no way, that Danny Fenton could get one up on Dash Baxter. That hit earlier had just been a lucky shot, he hadn't been expecting it. And thus, choosing to foolishly ignore all of his instincts, all the warning bells going off in his head, Dash straightened up.

"Oh, you think you're suddenly all high and mighty, huh, Fenton?" Dash shot back. "What, you get superpowers or something in the past four years?" He met the raven haired boy's glare, gathering up all of his courage in order to do so. He... hadn't really gotten superpowers, right? "That's cocky as hell coming from the guy who was always dead last in PE."

"Danny, come on." Sam pleaded with him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Leave him alone. You just got back home, you don't want to get in trouble." She had been more than a little surprised to watch Danny instantly retaliate against Dash, watching something that seemed more akin to an automatic reflex rather than a conscious thought. When had Danny even learned to fight? It felt like he had a pretty good idea of what he was doing, at least.

"Yeah, come on man, leave him alone." Tucker chimed in. "He's not worth the trouble. Why don't you, me and Sam all head down to the Nasty Burger? I'll even treat you, dude, in celebration of your return."

Danny twitched, every muscle in his body screaming at him to let him give Dash exactly what he deserved, but he took hold of himself, taking in and letting out a deep breath, and turned back to Tucker. "Yeah, alright. The Nasty Burger sounds good. It's been a long time since I've eaten there." He paused, frowning, quickly shifting moods at a pace that might give someone whiplash. "It... hasn't actually started to live up to it's name or anything since I left, right? Nasty burgers aren't actually _literally _nasty now?"

Tucker blinked, more than a little puzzled by how easily Danny had changed gears. "No man, it's the same as it ever was, no worries. They've gotten a few new menu options, too."

"Oh?" Danny asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Anything good?"

Dash glared at Danny's back, watching as he, Tucker, and Sam got ready to leave, the trio heading away from him. The whispers started up again, that Dash was just going to let Danny Fenton- it really was Danny Fenton, the all whispered, astonished- that he was just going to let him go after he had talked back to him like that, Dash Baxter, the self proclaimed king of Casper High!

Dash couldn't let this stand, couldn't let this go.

The warning bells were going off in his head, every part of his brain telling him to stop, to leave off, to be grateful. Everything told him he should leave Danny Fenton alone if he knew what was good for him.

But Dash's reputation was important for him, and he _couldn't._

"Hey, Fenton, I wasn't done talking to you!" Dash called after him, storming up behind him, and once again, reaching for his shoulder, giving it a hard jerk.

_That _was a mistake.

The next thing he knew, Dash found himself on the floor, withering in pain, letting out a howl as he realized that his arm had been broken. Whimpering, he dared to take a look on it, only to result in the color draining from his face. His bone had completely snapped, rendering him unable to move the thing, wrist _crushed_, and to make matters worse, part of said bone was jutting out from his arm, a sickening white gleam peeking out from his letterman jacket, blood starting to pool around it.

Dash played football.

Dash had seen injuries before.

Dash had _been _injured before!

This wasn't new, this _shouldn't_ be new.

All of this information was meaningless to him as he took one glance up at Danny's face, watching as a crimson color vanished from his eyes, an inhuman glint in them, and Dash found himself wondering _what _exactly he had just picked a fight with.

Not who, _what._

Because that was, whatever that was, walking around using Danny Fenton's body _was not human._ He realized that now, realized what his instincts had been telling him. He couldn't win against this thing, not because he knew how to fight- but because there was no way a human being could ever hope to match up to _whatever _the hell it was.

"You- you're..." Dash croaked out, feeling himself losing consciousness. No no, he _couldn't_ pass out, he had to tell someone, had to warn everyone. This thing was dangerous, _extremely_ dangerous. "_What _are you?"

And then, blackness.


	3. Things That Go Bump in the Night

Author's Note: Chapter Three is here! As always, this is Bekuki, bringing you completely unneeded fan service for both boys and girls. As always as well, Danny Phantom does not belong to me. Hohohohoho~ This was a fun chapter to write in some places, take wild guesses which.

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions

Chapter Three: Things That Go Bump in the Night

Things moved so fast then, Sam wasn't sure if she was awake or dreaming. The whole thing was rather surreal, everything had happened in such a blur. One second, Dash was coming after Danny again, and the next, he was on the ground in front of them. It took a couple of seconds for Sam to process the fact that Danny had just flipped Dash over his shoulder, and several more to process that Dash was injured. It took awhile longer yet for the extent of the injury to seep into her, eyes falling on glistening white bone that should not be outside of the football player's body.

Sam had to bite back vomit. It was one thing to see gore in a horror movie- you could tell it was fake when you looked at it, there was a sense of detachment about it from reality. But seeing something like this in person, in reality, was another thing entirely. _Hearing _the painful crack of a bone breaking was another thing. It was the sound, mostly, that had caused her strong adverse reaction, she realized when thinking upon it later. The sound of bones breaking was something the movies never got quite right.

It was probably a good thing.

The shock that ran through the student body was almost a living thing, and before anyone knew what was really going on, Mr. Lancer had already arrived, Maddie, who still hadn't left yet, in tow. Both of them were stunned at the scene they found, and stunned further still when they heard exactly what had happened. Danny himself appeared to be in something of a daze still, a rather blank expression on his face as if he too, didn't fully understand what had happened. When pressed for an explanation, Danny explained that he had suddenly felt danger, and that his body had just acted on it's own.

Someone's shock had finally worn off enough to call an ambulance for Dash, who was now lying unconsciousness in the hallway. There was someone trying to treat his arm at the moment, which thankfully, had stopped bleeding. Everything was frankly just a blur and rush of color, and Sam barely even noticed how much time had passed until someone finally shook her out of it, speaking directly to her and drawing her attention away from Dash's horribly broken arm.

_Danny _had done that. The boy she remembered being as meek (though she would never say that to his face) had done that. This was not the sort of action that the sweet boy who had left Amity Park would have taken, involuntary or not. She honestly just didn't know what to think of it. The Danny she had known would not only not do something like that, but Sam was also pretty sure that he wouldn't even be able to _physically _do it.

And yet, here they were.

Eventually, Mr. Lancer managed to chase the crowd of onlookers away, including a wailing Paulina, who perhaps now was rethinking her habit of flirting with every cute boy she came across. Well, when Dash woke up, he might be glad to hear that Paulina apparently did feel something for him, if nothing else.

The only people left in the hallway at the end were Danny and Dash, the student who had applied first aid to Dash, Sam, Tucker, Paulina, and Mr. Lancer and Maddie. Sam, Tucker, and Paulina were to explain to Mr. Lancer exactly what happened, while Maddie was trying to get her son to talk to her and tell her why on Earth he had done something like that- and how he _could _do that, perhaps.

"I don't know, Mr. Lancer." Sam said. "Dash just started to harass Danny because he thought he was flirting with Paulina." She scoffed at the very idea of it. "And we tried to leave, but he came after Danny again, and it just..." Words failed her here, so she shrugged her shoulders. "Sort of happened before anyone realized what was going on."

"Yeah, it was all pretty fast." Tucker chimed in, glancing over at Danny. As cool as that was, he couldn't help but think that maybe it had been a little too much. What if Dash's arm didn't heal up right? As far as Tucker knew, football was Dash's life, and an injury like that would take time to heal. He knew that Dash was depending on a football scholarship to get him into college, and with this, those plans might be dashed. No school was going to take an injured football player on the chance that he would recover from such a brutal injury.

"I didn't really see what happened either." Paulina meekly admitted, her Queen Bee act shed for once in her life. "I blinked, and Dash was on the floor. I was going to stop him, because you know, I didn't think it would really be worth it." She mentioned.

"Dash _was _the one to initiate the conflict, correct?" Mr. Lancer asked for clarification, his head swimming already at all of the complications this would cause. The school couldn't quite punish Daniel, as he wasn't exactly a student yet, but he didn't know if Mr. and Mrs. Baxter would let this slide without pressing charges. He had always known Dash Baxter was a bully, but he never expected the young man to be foolish enough to get in over his head. Then again, he supposed, peer pressure and the need to maintain his King of Casper High reputation might override common sense.

Mr. Lancer almost couldn't believe he had just so naturally thought of Danny Fenton as being a threat to Dash Baxter, one of the toughest guys in school. But, here they were.

"I don't know exactly." Danny admitted to his mother, his hand going up to the back of his neck, rubbing it. A nervous habit the years hadn't caused him to lose, apparently, for all the other things that had changed. "I just felt his hand on my shoulder and his desire to cause harm, and then boom, floor." He told her, gesturing to the ground with his hands. "I didn't _exactly _mean to do it." He lied.

Oh no, he'd meant to do it. Oh, sure, there was a good bit of an involuntarily reaction in there, but Danny didn't exactly go nuts on everyone who touched him- maybe a year ago, but these days he had a bit more control over his personal space issues. What Dash had done to him through his early life was nothing compared to what he had experienced for the last four years, but _boy _was it satisfying to know that he could beat him up so easily. It was kind of nice, really, watching someone who had caused you suffering writhe on the floor in pain, shitting their pants out of fear of you.

Danny wanted to do all that and much, much more to that woman. He wanted to make her beg for mercy, for forgiveness, and then snatch it away from her, smashing a tiny glimmer of hope to pieces, as she had done many times to him. Of course, Danny wouldn't let her live. Oh no, once he had his fun, May Clayborne was going to die, make no mistake.

"Is he going to be okay, do you think?" Danny asked, mimicking an expression of deep concern and regret, a touch of worry and horror to his voice. None of it was real, of course, a seamless lie.

"It's hard to say until we get a doctor to examine him." Mr. Lancer spoke up, looking over towards Danny. At least the boy seemed to regret his actions, for all that he still looked something akin to a dangerous animal waiting to pounce. "The bleeding has stopped at least, so there doesn't appear to be a risk of him bleeding out- but then again, I am not a health care professional."

_Tch, too bad. _Danny said to himself, not letting his expression betray his thoughts.

Maddie frowned deeply, studying her son, all kinds of thoughts swirling about in her mind. "Danny." She said gently, reaching out to place a light hand on his arm. She stopped partway, however, and drew it back, recalling his earlier warning. Perhaps it was for the best she avoided touching her son for the moment. "How is it that you did that?" She asked him. "I don't recall having ever taught you martial arts."

"Oh well," Danny blinked, rubbing the back of his neck, unsure of how to answer that. Why did everything have to be so complicated, and why did people have to ask so many questions? "...I don't remember." He told her, defaulting back to the memory loss explanation. There was no way they could prove that he couldn't remember, was there? And to be honest, there were actually segments of the past four years that sort of just blurred together, so it wasn't entirely a lie.

At least he was a better liar than he was when he had left for home. He'd have been given away almost immediately.

"Well, that's fine, I suppose." Maddie said, frowning in suspicion. There was something Danny wasn't telling her, she could now understand more what Jazz had been trying to say earlier. "Mr. Lancer, what are we going to do this? I don't think Danny meant to hurt the poor boy, not exactly."

"It's going to be largely up to Dash's parents and Dash himself, I think." Mr. Lancer said, finally hearing the sirens of an ambulance from outside. Unseen by anyone else, their attention turned towards the balding teacher, Danny tensed, before he realized what the sirens belonged to, and that they weren't something else. "For now, we'll have to play it by ear- this is a very unusual situation, I'm afraid, so I don't exactly know how to proceed." He admitted.

The ambulance workers arrived then, and carefully loaded the still unconscious Dash up on the gurney, taking care of his arm. After exchanging a few words with Mr. Lancer, he went with them, alongside the still bawling Paulina. The student who had been caring for Dash had gone off somewhere else as well, leaving Danny alone with his friends and his mother, all three of whom were eying him somewhat strangely.

* * *

It was a miracle that they had eventually gotten home at a decent hour. Dash's parents had held them up for hours after they had heard what happened to their son. Maddie noted with some annoyance that they apparently had no idea that their son was one of the school bullies, and they scoffed at the idea that anyone would ever have to do anything in self defense against their golden boy because he would never dream of causing anyone any harm.

Dash had woken up about three hours later, and had nervously convinced his parents to not press charges, like they had been planning to. He was side-eying Danny the entire time, as if there was something he wanted to say, but not daring to say it with _him_ in the room. Eventually, Maddie and Danny had been allowed to leave, and upon getting home, the ghost huntress had collapsed on the couch in exhaustion. Her son, appearing to be rather unfazed, had gone up to his room, and had then vanished without another word, just a note left behind that he would be back for dinner.

Honestly, Maddie didn't know what that boy was thinking anymore- she had half a mind to ground him on the spot, but she'd been too worn down earlier to do so. She'd talked it over with Jack and Jazz, and after brushing aside Jack's suggestion that they stick Danny in the Fenton Stockades, she decided that they needed to have a serious talk with him when he decided to show up again.

Meanwhile, Danny couldn't really care less about what his mother was thinking. He planned to pay Sam a surprise visit, more than a little upset that they were interrupted in the middle of the day. Maybe he could still see if she wanted to go to the Nasty Burger with him, apparently unable to comprehend that she might not want to hang around someone who had just grievously harmed one of her fellow students.

Sam's house was pretty much as he remembered it, and he grinned, turning invisible and slipped right in through the front door. He looked around for Sam, grinning a little as he passed by Sam's parents, who were sitting at the table, discussing their feelings over the fact that 'That Fenton Kid' was back, and it didn't take a genius to figure out they were talking about him.

"On one hand, I'm glad she'll finally stop worrying about him all the time, but did you hear what he did to that Baxter kid?" Jeremy asked his wife, and that was about as much as Danny cared to listen to before he went on, seeking out Sam. He headed up to her room, poking his head in through the door, and found it empty. Figuring that she'd be back after awhile though, he passed himself through the rest of the door, and turned visible again.

"Same decor as always. New bed, though." Danny noted, walking over and taking a seat on it. A few minutes later, and his patience was rewarded by Sam's footsteps outside of the door, and she opened it up. She didn't notice Danny for a second, obviously a bit lost in thought, and yelped when she saw him waiting on her bed.

"Danny!" She said, looking visibly startled. "I didn't expect to see you here! How did you get in? No offense, but I'm pretty sure my parents wouldn't let you in to see me, especially not after what you did today to Dash."

"Yeah, they didn't." Danny said, but didn't answer her question in any other way. He stood up, closing the distance between them. "I just thought that I would come and see you, since our meeting this afternoon was kind of cut short."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have broken Dash's arm." Sam remarked, arching an eyebrow. "I didn't even know you had that sort of thing in you, Danny. Violence isn't the answer, you know." She said lightly.

"But it makes things easier." Danny said simply, tilting his head to the side, seemingly confused by her words. "Well, it's Dash's fault anyways." He said, rolling his eyes. "Maybe he should find himself a girlfriend that's a little more faithful."

Sam's eyes narrowed at his comment, watching her old friend closely. "You really have changed, Danny. And I'm not so sure that's a good thing. The old you would have _never_ done something like that."

"That's because the old me would have never stood up for themselves." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like it's a big deal, arms heal."

"Yeah, but Dash is a football player. His college career is riding on that." Sam told him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I don't like the guy either, and I think he's kind of a jerk, but I don't think he deserved that. And I get the feeling that reaction wasn't one hundred percent involuntary either, Danny. You're keeping something from us, and I don't like that, since it seems as if it's pretty important. Don't you trust us anymore?" She asked him. "We were worried sick about you for four years, and you come back and tell us nothing at all?"

"There's nothing to tell." Danny told her simply, sticking to his story. "Come on Sam, don't be so uptight. Aren't you happy to see me? Because I'm sure happy to see you again. You've become even prettier since the last time I saw you!"

Sam found her face heating up at his rather unexpected words, in spite of her better judgement. Fighting it back, she glowered at him. "Flattering me isn't going to get you out of this Danny. Besides, you know I'm not interested in that sort of thing." She told him. "I would just appreciate it if you would be honest with me. I thought we were friends, Danny." Sam said.

"Friends, huh?" Danny frowned, not seeming to like the sound of that. "I always sort of wanted to become something more with you Sam."

"I-" Now Sam really did turn bright red, her entire face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "What? I mean, what are you trying to say Danny? I thought you weren't... I always thought you were more interested in girls like Paulina, and that's so sudden, I mean we haven't even seen each other for years and..."

"So?" Danny asked, tilting his head to the side. "As for Paulina, feh." He waved a dismissive

hand, shaking his head. "Paulina is nothing. She doesn't have half the charm or grace that you do, Sam." He told her directly. "You were right about her in the end, you always are right about these things after all. That's part of what I like so much about you!"

"Did Tucker put you up to this?" Sam asked hesitantly, not sure if she should be trusting her ears. Was Danny _really _confessing that he was attracted to her?

"What?" Danny laughed at that, crossing his arms in front of him, tilting his head to the side, quirking a grin. "Does it really seem so unlikely that I would fall head over heels for you, Sam? Frankly I don't understand how people could ever fall in love with someone who wasn't you. You're the perfect girl, and I don't know what I would do without you in my life." He told her, reaching out to take one of her hands, giving it a quick kiss.

Sam wasn't exactly a person prone to meltdowns, but needless to say, her best friend, who had been missing for four years, confessing to her after earlier thrashing the so-called 'King' of her high school, and then to top everything off, was now kissing her hand, was a little too much for her to process. She was certain that steam must be rising from her head, because her face felt burning hot, and she was sure that she must be as red as a beet.

"So what do you say, Sam?" Danny asked, placing his other hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer towards him. She lot out an involuntary shiver, feeling the temperature around her drop as Danny pulled her closer- God, but he was cold. "How about you run away with me? I came back to Amity Park just for you, you know." He told her, a strange glint in his eyes as he said this.

"I-Danny." Sam stammered, swallowing, trying to get a grip on her emotions, which were currently spiraling out of control. "Danny, you can't be serious. I mean, I always thought we were just friends." She told him. "And I can't run away with you- I haven't even finished high school! And your parents, Danny, what would they think if you left Amity Park so soon?" She asked him, slowly getting her feelings under control. "Don't you care about them at all?"

"Well," Danny paused, pulling back a little as he considered this for a moment. "No, not really."

The silence in Sam's room was such that you could hear a pin drop. "_What?" _She gasped out. "Danny, I know your parents are kind of awkward and rather embarrassing, but did you honestly just say that you didn't care about them?"

"I did." Danny blinked, looking confused at her reaction, as if he couldn't even begin to understand why she was so upset. "Why do you make that sound like it's a problem?"

"Because it is a problem!" Sam yelled, stomping her foot. "Danny, they are your parents, and they love you dearly. And they've been worried sick about you for the past few years, thinking you'd turn up dead in a ditch somewhere. And you honestly seem to think that you can just waltz in here, tell nobody anything, beat a few people up, and then whisk me away to who knows where? Danny Fenton, what is _wrong _with you?"

Danny tilted his head a little, a hand to his chin, looking a bit akin to a confused dog. "I don't understand what you mean, Sam." He said after a moment. "The only person I really care about is you. Nobody else really matters." He blinked a few times, azure eyes meeting hers. "And why wouldn't you want to come with me? I always thought you were in love with me too. Isn't that all two people need to be together?"

"I-" Sam sputtered, unable to believe what she was hearing. "No Danny! There's just a huge amount of problems with that, and I don't even know where to s_tart _with you. How are you not understanding me?" She asked him, searching his expression for something, anything, that would give her a sign as to what was going on here. "You weren't like this before. You-you understood things before." She said after a moment, a puzzled expression crossing her face. "Why can't you now?"

Something about that seemed to trigger a sudden change in Danny, and his eyes narrowed, a wave of anger cracking through the room. "Yeah, well, maybe this is me now!" He yelled. "Why the hell are you making this so complicated, Sam? I thought you would be happy!"

"I am happy!" Sam shouted back. "Happy to see you again, happy for a chance for things to go back to normal!" She said, placing her hands on her hips, glaring at her old friend, not backing down. "You're the one whose keeping secrets and acting frankly really weird, Danny! I'm staying in Amity Park, I'm not going anywhere- with you or otherwise, until at least college. And I would hope that for the sake of everyone who has been missing you and fearing for the worst that you would have the decency to do so as well!"

"Sammykins?" She could hear her mother outside of her door now, her parents having been drawn upstairs by the noise. "Is everything okay in there?"

"Is someone in there with you?" She could hear her father ask, concern lacing his voice. They hadn't let anyone in the house- was there some creep inside Sam's room with her?

"No, everything's fine you two." Sam called back to them, cracking her door open. "I'm just having a bit of a spat with Danny."

"The Fenton kid is here?" Jeremy asked, all but pushing the door open, glancing around frantically for said person. "Sam, I'm sorry, but I don't see Danny around here anywhere."

"Wait, what?" Sam whipped around, eyes darting about. "But- he was just _here."_

"How on Earth did he get in here in the first place?" Pamela wondered aloud. "I'm sure none of the servants would have let that riff-raff in."

"He's _not _riff-raff." Sam said quickly. "And who even says that anymore?"

"Sam, honey, he sneaked into your room without anyone noticing and he broke an innocent young man's arm so badly it may never properly heal. Please tell me how that isn't riff-raff." Pamela said, inclining her brows.

Sam sucked in her breath, not having realized that the extent of Dash's injury had been that bad, and hoped her mother was just blowing things out of proportion. "Danny's just a little troubled, that's all." She said, finding herself defending him in spite of their earlier spat. 'Troubled' might be selling it a little bit short, she thought. She would have to have a chat with Jazz at her earliest convenience, to see if between the two of them, they could figure something out.

"Well, I don't like the idea of you seeing him, Sammykins." Her father told her, finally satisfied that he was not hiding somewhere in the room. "He might have been okay when he was fourteen, but he's trouble now, and I don't want you to have anything to do with him." He told her.

"That's not up to you to decide." Sam pointed out. "I'm eighteen, I think I'm allowed to pick and choose who I hang out with now."

"You're also still living underneath our roof." Jeremy pointed out, looking rather cross with his daughter. "And you will do as you are told for as long as you are."

"No, I won't." Sam said firmly. "You can't make me do anything, even thought you seem to be under the illusion that you can."

"Young lady, I will not have you talk back to me!" Her father snapped, glowering at his daughter. "Whatever happened to that sweet little girl that we had? _She _would listen to us."

"Let her hang around the _Fentons _too much." Her mother said underneath her breath.

"Well excuse me for growing up and maturing." Sam rolled her eyes. "Nobody stays a baby forever."

"Yes well I think that tone deserves-" Suddenly, Jeremy was cut short, gasping out a choked cry, reaching his hands up for his throat. His eyes bulged, and he was clearly struggling for breath and fighting against something, as if something that they couldn't see had wrapped it's hands around his throat and was choking the breath out of him. Faint, hand print bruises formed around his neck, and both Sam and Pamela let out a cry, trying to help the man. It was only when Sam acted, that it stopped, and Jeremy was released, collapsing to the ground, gasping for breath.

"Dad!" Sam cried out, her argument with him completely forgotten for the moment. "Dad, are you okay?" She asked, carefully putting a hand on his shoulder. "Mom, we should call an ambulance!"

"B-but the ghost." Pamela stammered, clearly not wanting to leave her daughter alone when there could be some horribly malevolent spook hanging around the house. It was the only thing she could think of that could have caused this, at any rate, but most ghosts in Amity Park weren't _this _actively malevolent.

"I'll be fine!" Sam yelled. "Dad might not be. Ambulance!" She prompted her mother again, who meekly nodded and scurried down the stairs. Shaking a little, Sam tried to recall what kind of first aid was needed for these sorts of situations. Suddenly, her thoughts were broken as she let out a violent shiver, as if something ice cold had just passed through her. A bolt of anger shot through her body as this happened, and for a single moment, she could almost feel her mind ripping apart at the seams- and then everything was back to normal, and she found herself panting a little, arms wrapped around her body, her heart beating twice as fast.

_What the hell was __**that**__?_

And why had it felt oddly almost familiar?

* * *

"I'll go look for him." Jazz said, getting up from the dinner table. Although they had held off for thirty minutes, Danny still had not shown up as promised, and they were starting to get worried. "You and dad go ahead and eat." She told them, giving the pair a small smile. "I'm sure it's nothing, he probably just forgot when our dinner time is." She assured them, though she found herself doubting this. If she didn't believe what she was saying, she wondered at her ability to convince her parents of it.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Maddie asked, getting ready to push her chair up and join her.

"No, mom, it's fine. You and dad eat. I'll look for Danny. Besides, you already had to deal with him all afternoon and this morning." Jazz told her. "He's my little brother, let me look after him from time to time."

"Well, alright. But call us if anything happens." Maddie said. "Do you have your emergency ecto pistol?" She asked.

Jazz rolled her eyes at that. "Come on mom, you know I don't care about ghosts, even if they _are _real."

"Just humor us, sweetie." Maddie said. "We just want you to be safe."

Jazz sighed, defeated. "Alright, I'll go get it." She said. "I'll call you when I find Danny. If he shows up here before I do, then call me, okay?" She asked them. They nodded, and she headed upstairs, grabbing the emergency ecto pistol her parents had given her, and stuffed it inside of her coat. She hurried down the stairs, waving goodbye to her parents, before heading out into the brisk night air.

To be honest, she was more than a little furious with her brother. After what he had done today, to think that he had the gall to leave the house, sneaking out of his room, and then not turn up when he had promised to. This being two days after he returned home from a four year disappearance. At least he had left a note this time, inaccurate though it was. And Jazz truly hoped it really was a matter of _when _she found Danny, and not a matter of _if _she found Danny, because she would hate to think what briefly getting their son back and then having him slip right through their fingers would do to her parents.

And herself.

Her little brother was acting more than just a little strange, anyone could tell that. When had he gotten so strong? She hadn't been there, of course, but she'd heard about what happened from her mother, and the rumors were already starting to spread. People were convinced that Danny had run away and joined a gang, some of the more supernaturally inclined were trying to say that he was possessed by something. Jazz laughed at that idea, because, even though ghosts had been proven real, Jazz knew her brother when she saw him, and for all that the had changed, Jazz knew that the person who had returned to Amity Park was the real Danny Fenton.

Just one who had undergone a lot of changes she couldn't quite explain.

No, well, she had some ideas at least. Those unnatural reflexes and strength of his could be explained by some form of conditioning- for whatever reason, Danny was used to having to fight. He was used to having people sneak up on him, and use dirty tactics, so he'd developed a response to people touching him from blind spots, one of violence. Even in his sleep, it seemed, the reflexes were still ready. And it wasn't just little spats, Jazz thought, no, her encounter with him this morning made her think that he might have been fighting with his life on the line.

He had gone straight for the kill.

Jazz shuddered, she had been trying not to think that for awhile. Maybe it really _was_ gangs. Maybe her little brother had run away and had gotten tangled up with bad people, and had been forced to stay with them. Maybe the reason he wasn't saying anything was because he didn't want to get anyone involved.

Frowning, Jazz attempted to dial Sam, wondering if she had seen Danny. Her call went straight to the goth girl's voicemail, however, and she frowned, sighing, and went to tuck the phone back away. She found it tumbling out of her hands instead, someone having bumped into her from behind. Frowning, Jazz picked up the phone, more than a little irritated that they hadn't apologized, and after putting it back in her coat, she looked to see who it was and give them a piece of her mind.

And stopped.

"Star?" Jazz said hesitantly, watching the blonde haired girl walk down the street. She was dressed rather lightly- and by that, Jazz meant she was literally wearing nothing but a towel. Her eyes were blank, as if she were being drawn by something, and Jazz frowned, running to catch up with her. Waving her hand in front of the girl's eyes got her nothing, so she tried shaking her shoulders, which did nothing but make her towel fall down.

Quickly flushing red, Jazz scurried to secure the towel back around Star, who still did not respond even to this sudden loss of privacy. "Star!" Jazz called out again, snapping her fingers a few times, only to get nothing again. "Yo, Star!" She called again, this time slapping her across the face.

_That _jolted the girl awake, and she blinked, slowly coming to awareness. Star glanced around blankly for a few minutes, as her mind slowly came back to her. The first thing she probably noticed was the chill of the late autumn air, and the second being that she was outside in nothing but her towel. The third was probably the stinging pain on her face, and the fourth was probably the concerned face of Jazz looking back towards her. The A-Lister's face turned a brilliant shade of crimson as she took all this in, pulling the towel closer to herself.

"W-what am I doing out here, Fenton?" She stammered.

"That's what I was going to ask you." Jazz said after a moment, pulling off her coat, taking out the ecto-pistol. "Here, put this on." She told her.

"Thank you." Star said meekly, tugging the coat on and zipping it up, feeling slightly less exposed. "The last thing I remember was blow drying my hair in the bathroom after my bubble bath, and then some kind of voice in my head." She told her. "Something about me being a 'bride candidate' or something."

"_Aragon."_ Jazz snapped her fingers. Her parents had once made her memorize a list of all the ghosts the frequented Amity Park, and looking for a human bride was sort of Aragon's MO. "Do you know where you were heading?" She paused, and then caught sight of another girl, one she didn't know, wandering aimlessly down the street, and frowned. "Or I guess I could follow her."

Turning back towards Star, Jazz charged up her ecto pistol. Her search for Danny was momentarily abandoned due to something of more immediate importance. If she waited until she found him to do anything about it, then Aragon could have the girls he was calling halfway to his lair in the Ghost Zone by then. "Go and run to Fenton Works and get my parents. Also ask my mom to loan you some clothes." She said quickly, glancing down at her attire. "Tell them Prince Aragon is up to his old tricks."

Star meekly nodded, making sure her towel was in place before she scurried across the streets, presumably hoping that nobody else saw her in this state.

Nodding her head, Jazz followed silently behind the other girl, still locked in her trance. While she wasn't interested in ghosts or ghost hunting, Jazz couldn't exactly ignore trouble when it was all but staring her in the face. After a few moments, other girls joined them (and sure enough, Paulina was one of them), and suddenly, Jazz found a twinge of irritation, wondering what about her was so bad that she was apparently not being summoned herself. Although, a closer look revealed all the summoned girls to be teenagers, and she made a small face. "Stuck in the Dark Ages indeed, yikes."

From the looks of things, the girls were headed towards the park. Absently, she realized that she had left her cell phone in her coat, and grimaced, realizing that she would not be able to call her mother to tell her the location they were going towards- and then her thoughts halted, spotting S_am _of all people amongst the summoned girls. Carefully, Jazz made her way over towards Sam, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to stop.

Another quick slap across the face caused Sam to blink back to reality, shaking her head. "Jazz...?" She said, confused violet eyes falling on the girl. "What am I doing out here?" She asked. "Last I recall, I was throwing out the trash."

"It's Aragon." Jazz told her.

Sam made a face. "Yikes. Thanks for getting me out of that trance, Jazz." She said. "Why are you out here anyways?"

"I was looking for Danny, until I found Star wandering the streets in a towel." She told her. "Don't tell anyone that, though. Poor girl looked completely mortified."

"My lips are sealed." Sam swore. "And you can't find Danny?" She asked her. "Last I saw him, we had a bit of a fight in my room, and then he was gone all of a sudden."

"Really?" Jazz asked, biting back a question about what the fight had been about. There were more important things afoot. "I'll ask later. Right now someone needs to keep tabs on these girls and Aragon. Please tell me you have your cell phone on you." She pleaded.

"I hate to say it, but no, I don't. I'm coming with you, though." Sam told her. "If worse comes to worse, we can split up and throw him off."

"Well," Jazz paused, considering this. "Alright. But stay on your toes."

Quietly, the two girls crept after the summoned girls, ducking behind bushes and trees. There was a forested area in the back of the park, they recalled, and spotting some floating guards outside of it, they assumed that must be where Aragon was having the girls lead to. Carefully tucking the ecto pistol down her shirt, she silently motioned towards Sam, and they slipped into the crowd of mesmerized girls, pretending that they were also locked in a trance. It got them past the guards without so much as a second glance, and once they were inside the tree line, they broke out of formation, creeping silently through the undergrowth, keeping an eye out for the girls.

Soon they found Aragon, who was lounging in the center of a small clearing, looking over the girls as they arrived with a cool, assessing gaze. He apparently had someone bring a throne from his throne room in the Ghost Zone here, because it was what he was sitting on. Floating by his side were four more ghostly guards. The last thing Jazz had recalled about Aragon was that he had attempted to abduct the beauty pageant contestants, but had been thwarted by her parents and his own sister, who turned against him.

She guessed things had changed.

"Ah yes, the bride candidates." Aragon stood up as they arrived, frowning as he looked them over. "What is this? Two are missing." He said, casting a glance towards the two guards from the edge of the forest, who were following behind the last girl. "Guards!" He called out. "Two of the bride candidates are missing. I demand to know _where _they are."

"The right number came through the entrance." One of the guards said.

Aragon's eyes narrowed, not liking the sound of this. "Then that means we have two intruders who slipped in amongst them." He cast his eyes over the forest, glowering as he tried to search out Sam and Jazz's hiding spot. In response, they lowered themselves a little more, ducking fully out of vision.

"Find them, and add them to the rest." Aragon issued an order, and four of the ghost guards dispersed, with two hanging back to guard their master as he slumped back on his throne.

Jazz and Sam exchanged a look with each other, silently communicating a plan. Jazz would distract them, since she was the one armed, and Sam would make a break for it when she had a chance, and get her parents. Springing into action, Jazz leapt from behind the bush, pointing the ecto pistol and firing it at the nearest guard, causing him to be forced back. This turned the attention of Aragon and his guards alike on her, and Sam took the chance to make a break for it.

Aragon, however, was not so distracted that he didn't notice the fleeing figure. He ordered two of his men to go after her, and Sam sped up in response. Jazz grimaced, firing off two ecto blasts towards the guards going after Sam, only one of which hit it's mark. In a flash, she found herself in the grip of Aragon, clutching her wrists together, tearing the ecto pistol out of her hands and tossing it aside.

"A bit too old, but she will do, I suppose." Aragon assessed her, looking her up and down.

"I don't know if anyone has told you this, but in this age, teenage girls don't generally get married. I'm not too old, I'm too young if anything." Jazz shot back.

Her words made Aragon glower and he tossed her aside, to fall in the grip of one of his guards. "Arrogant girl. Women these days simply do not understand their place. No matter, that can be trained out of you."

Jazz glared back at him, kicking and struggling against the guard to no use. She only hoped that Sam was having better luck than she was.

* * *

Sam was fast, a quick runner by any means. She could be on the track team if she so desired to, and would probably be a valuable asset to it. But ghosts that could simply fly through trees and bushes, rather than have to jump over them and avoid them, had the upper hand in this situation, and she soon found the two guards catching up with her, blocking off both paths of escape. Biting back a swear, Sam tensed up, ready to bolt again the moment she got a chance.

"Back to Aragon for you." One of the ghost guards spoke up, reaching out to grab her wrist.

The hand never made it, instead, from out of nowhere, another ghost manifested, grabbing on to the ghost guard's wrist and pulling it forward, using this as leverage to knee it in the face. Unprepared for this, it flew backwards some distance from the blow. "That hand isn't for you, you shitty punk."

Sam's eyes flew to her ghostly savior, and she sucked in a small breath when she saw him. He had snow white hair, worn wild and untamed and crimson eyes, silted like a reptile's, black line markings running through them. Pointed ears and black claws, pale skin and a large, jagged scar that cut through the upper part of his left arm, he wore black clothes, a black shirt worn low so that it showed off his shoulders and collarbone, ragged around the sleeves and bottom, and a pair of equally ragged looking black pants, white belts strapped about them with no rhyme nor reason and white boots. He was floating in mid-air, glowing faintly, and was charging up a pale green ecto blast tinged with crimson, towards the ghost he had just attacked, damaging it to the point where it couldn't hold it's form.

Flashing teeth and showing fang, he whirled around, facing the remaining ghost guard. "_Boo."_ He hissed, taking delight as small ember in his hand burst into a raging ecto flame, which he engulfed the second guard with, burning away until there was nothing.

It was only then that he turned back towards Sam, floating down to the ground in front of her. He was tall, she noted, around Danny's height. "What on Earth are you thinking, you idiot?" He asked her directly. "Who actually runs into danger unarmed?"

"If you have time to lecture me, you have time to save Jazz and the other girls." Sam pointed out.

"Save them?" The ghost asked, lifting an eyebrow, laughing outright at the idea. "Why bother?"

Sam had no idea why she thought this ghost _would_ do so, other than the fact that he had just saved her. What was up with that anyways? Red eyes on a ghost weren't normally a good sign, especially not ones like he had, so why would he save a human from being attacked? It didn't make any sense. "Because you should." She said after a moment, almost as if she didn't fully understand herself.

The ghost seemed to consider this for a moment, tilting it's head to the side. "Alright, because you asked me to." He said after a moment, flashing a devilish grin. "Besides, I could use something to blow off some steam on."

Before Sam could say anything else, the ghost was gone in a flash, flying at rapid speeds towards the forest clearing where Aragon waited. He arrived in as much of a violent manner as his appearance in front of Sam, slamming his feet into the back of the ghost's head that had a grip on Jazz. It stumbled forward, nearly taking Jazz with it, before the ghost phased his hand through the guard, unceremoniously yanking Jazz out from under him and tossing her aside.

Sam let out a yelp, crying out in a bit of pain as she hit her head on the ground. Pulling herself quickly to her feet, so gaped at the sight in front of her, unsure of what to make of it. Before her was a ghost she had never seen even once in her life, and yet, for reasons she couldn't place, something about him was familiar. She didn't have long to dwell on that as this strange ghost set another one of the guards on fire, a swirl of pale green and crimson ecto flame engulfing it.

"I would say nothing personal, but," the ghost cracked it's neck, "Who am I kidding, I'm going to enjoy this." He turned his attention towards the three remaining guard ghosts, who had fallen into formation in front of Aragon.

"Who dares disturb my quest for a bride?" Aragon demanded, standing up, his guards moving aside to admit him.

"That would be me. Name's Phantom." Phantom introduced himself. "And seriously dude, this is how you look for a bride?" He laughed. "Haven't you tried Internet dating or something? Or do ladies not go for the blue skin?" He asked.

"Arrogant ghost!" Aragon spat. "Do you not know who I am?"

"A blue dude wearing a bed sheet as a cape." Phantom said simply, shrugging his shoulders.

"I am Prince Aragon!" Aragon declared aloud. "And you dare challenge me?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much." Phantom nodded his head. "Or more like," He smirked, eyes glinting dangerously. "You dare challenge _me_?"

"Hmph. I can see we have a ghost that needs to be put in his place." Aragon observed. Jazz knew what came next, and the ghost prince's amulet lit up, turning Prince Aragon into a fearsome black dragon, that towered over everything else.

And Phantom looked remarkably unimpressed. He gave Aragon a slow clap, quirking an eyebrow. "Cute party trick. Did your mommy teach you that one, or did you figure it out all by yourself?" He asked him.

"You still dare to speak to me in such an insolent tone?" Aragon hissed. "You may think you know something of fire, but allow me to show you _real _flames, child!" With that, Aragon blew out a mighty breath, blue fire barreling down straight for Phantom.

Smirking once more, Phantom merely raised a hand, sucking the energy of the flames into it. It changed color to that of Phantom's green and crimson ecto-energy as it traveled down the length of his arm, collecting at his back in the form of a pair of transparent wings, vaguely shaped like those of a bat, and bright green in color, which grew as Phantom absorbed more of the fire. Once all of it was consumed, he flashed Aragon a chilling grin, a mad twinkle in his eyes.

"Thanks for the meal." He told him. "Now have some dessert." The mad look on his face grew as the wings were sucked back inside of his body, channeling through his extended hand, creating a massive ecto-blast that not only tore the amulet Aragon used for his dragon transformation off of him, half destroying the thing, but also ripped the ghost and his guards apart, as well as half the forest behind him.

"Well that was almost disappointingly easy." Phantom observed, frowning a little as the mesmerized girls slowly came back to themselves.

A low whine answered Phantom's words, and Jazz turned, discovering that the Red Hunter had appeared floating above them on her jet sled, her ecto weapons trained on the mysterious white haired ghost. "Yeah well," the Red Hunter began. "If you weren't satisfied with that, then you're going to love _me_, ghost punk."

Phantom's attention turned towards the Red Hunter, his smirk growing as he looked at her. "Amity Park's famous Red Hunter, is it?" He asked, both hands flaring to life with ecto flame. "Oh, I think I _will_."


	4. Mad Mad Ghost Boys

Author's Note: Alright, here's the next update! Once again, I must apologize for the wait! I didn't really write anything yesterday since I was rather invested in the election, but now that that is over and done with, here we go! I hope you all enjoy!

Once again, Danny Phantom does not belong to me, however, May and Matthew Clayborne do.

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions Redux

Chapter Four: Mad Mad Ghost Boys

"You sound awfully sure of yourself, ghost." The Red Hunter charged up her ecto-gun, a smirk on her face, hidden behind her mask. "I'll have to take care of that ego of yours."

"Speak for yourself." Phantom arched an eyebrow, a dangerous glimmer in his crimson eyes. "If anyone here is underestimating someone, it's you."

The time for talk was apparently over then, as Phantom released the ecto-flames that he had been holding on to, roaring towards the ghost huntress. She quickly readjusted her flight course, the flame singing the edges of her jet sled as she spun around, firing off a blast from her ecto-gun that Phantom simply reflected off of a shield of ectoplasm.

Sam and Jazz stood watching in a mixture of apprehension and confusion- a moment ago, this ghost had been saving them. But from what she understood from Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, ghosts were like that- they moved on their whims, and not logic. She didn't know what Valerie's excuse was for fighting a ghost that had just defeated another one mere moments ago, but perhaps she just didn't have a real idea about what had just happened.

Valerie Gray was the Red Hunter. This wasn't exactly a fact that most people knew- in fact, Sam was pretty sure she was the only person who did. She's stumbled onto it by chance, and had kept her silence on the matter. She was pretty sure that not even Valerie knew that she knew about it, because otherwise the other girl would have confronted her about it. Sam didn't really know why Valerie was a ghost hunter- or where she had gotten all of her equipment from, but she couldn't exactly ask those questions.

Then again, Sam couldn't really say for sure if this ghost was really a savior or not. He'd helped, to be sure- but he didn't seem really interested at all, not at first. And in the end, was destroying half the forest really necessary? Sam couldn't help but feel her inner environmentalist rage a little at that. On the other, she knew enough to know that bringing up that issue with a ghost probably was not her best course of action.

"So you've got some bite to you after all, huh ghost?" Valerie asked, firing off another blast from her ecto-gun, one which Phantom dodged with an almost effortless grace. An irritated sound slipped from her throat, doubtlessly bothered by how slippery he was. Sam knew Valerie was known to have a short temper, and somehow, she didn't picture this battle ending well.

She just wasn't sure for who.

"I can't say the same for you, I'm afraid." Phantom smirked, and with a wave of his hand, created a ring of ecto flame in front of him, burning up the miniature ghost seeking razor discs that Valerie had deployed. "Exactly how long have you even been at this ghost hunting thing? You suck at it- I'm pretty sure the Guys in White are better than you." He taunted.

"Okay, come on, I've _met _the Guys in White, so I know that isn't true." Valerie snapped, eye twitching underneath her mask. From the look on Phantom's face however, she could somehow tell he knew it anyways. He was taunting her! What an insufferable ghost this was- who did he think he was, anyways? She might have not been able to match up to say, Maddie Fenton, but she was pretty sure she could outhunt the Guys in White any day.

But for the ghost to know about the Guys in White would have to mean he had to have caught their attention at one point- so perhaps there was more to this ghost than just being a mere specter. Given the kinds of powers he was displaying, Valerie suspected that this was the case.

"You're going to have to try a lot harder if you want to prove that." Phantom said lazily, easily floating out of the way of another ecto-blast. Her aim wasn't the problem, Valerie thought, this ghost was just fast. She wasn't the same rookie she was at the beginning, when even the Box Ghost gave her some problems.

"Yeah, well, you're going to regret issuing that challenge, ghost boy, because I'm going to see to it that you're in for a world of hurt." Valerie threatened him, her voice low.

"Oh?" Phantom's eyes almost glimmered, a hint of madness in them. "That sounds fun!" Ecto flame formed around his hand and he fired off a large blast of it towards Valerie, which she shielded herself from using one of her jet sled's special functions. "Have at it then, Red!"

Narrowing her eyes, Valerie kept her shield up, quickly stepping on the accelerator, and charging towards Phantom. It wasn't until she was up close that she dropped the shield, quickly firing off two blasts from her ecto pistol at close range. Phantom gave a fierce grin, using his own ecto energy to blast them back, the resulting impact creating an implosion that sent both ghost and hunter rocketing backwards.

"That's more like it!" Phantom declared, floating upwards as Valerie struggled to regain control of her jet sled. The white haired ghost was about to open his mouth to let out another quip before another ecto blast launched towards him, this time not from Valerie. Dodging it, he turned around to look towards who shot it, and his playful expression quickly turned downright venomous.

"No ghost harms Jack Fenton's family!" The large man cried out, a low whirring sound emitting from the Fenton Bazooka that he carried.

"Sam, Jazz, honey, are you two alright?" A worried Maddie asked, kneeling down by Jazz and placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You aren't hurt or anything?"

"I'm fine, mom." Jazz shrugged off her hand, looking flustered for a moment. "That ghost hasn't done anything to us." She was quick to add. "He saved us from Aragon, and then the Red Hunter showed up and started firing."

"That's right~" Phantom gave a small pout, the venomous look that had been there now gone. "I haven't done anything wrong except attempt to help these young ladies." He said, making a wave of his hand to indicate the ladies in question, many of them still working their way out of a daze. "And for that, I get shot at? What a way you people have to reward people!" He scoffed.

"I highly doubt a ghost would be doing anything just for the sake of others." Maddie said, standing up and glowering at him, hand on her ecto pistol, but unwilling to draw it for the moment. There was something about this ghost that bothered her, something about it that seemed almost strangely familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She was sure she had never met him before- she would most likely recall a ghost who appeared this humanlike.

And the power scale reader attached to her hip was going crazy, and she didn't think it was residue from Aragon being here. And sure enough, true to Phantom's words, Aragon was no longer here- as well as half of the forest. What exactly had happened before they had gotten here?

"Yeah, what she said!" Jack agreed, charging up the Fenton Bazooka. "Time to go back to the Ghost Zone where you belong, you spook!"

For a brief moment, an indescribable look crossed Phantom's face, some mixture of anger, irritation... and was that _shame_? Half growling at Jack, he hurled a wave of ecto flame at him. Swearing underneath her breath, Maddie jumped into action, pulling Jack out of the way, causing the blast from his Fenton Bazooka to go astray.

Valerie, finding herself all but forgotten in the arrival of the Fentons, decided to use this as her chance to get a hit in, firing off two more of the little ghost seeking razor discs, which whirred through the air. A distracted Phantom blasted one, but the other managed to hit it's mark before it was destroyed, resulting in a large gash up his right arm. Growling again, a rather inhuman noise, the ghost sucked in his breath, before letting out what only could be described as a howl.

The sound pierced eardrums and caused those gathered to firmly clasp their hands over their ears, very little good that it did. Trees from behind them ripped out of the ground, falling over, and those unfortunate to be trapped in the direct line of fire were blown backwards, impacting the fallen trees.

Jack shielded Maddie, Sam, and Jazz with his body, forgoing covering his ears to protect them. Valerie grunted, her mask providing her some protection from the sound as she sped up to quickly rise above it before the sound wave could blast her back, but it sent her jet sled rocking unsteadily. By the time the Fentons, Sam, and Valerie got a handle on their surroundings again, the white haired ghost boy was already gone.

"Who was that?" Maddie asked aloud, trying to get the ringing out of her ears. That was unmistakably a ghostly wail, a high powered ghost ability, and one that would usually drain the ghost in question for some time afterwards. She'd never seen it used before, and she wasn't sure that she would ever want to see it be used again- given the fact that they were still standing, it was highly likely that the ghost had held back.

"He said his name was Phantom." Sam spoke up, groaning as she got to her feet. Mrs. Fenton had asked who the ghost was, hadn't she? She wasn't too sure, she couldn't hear too well at the moment.

"Well there's a creative name." Maddie could help but quip, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Then again, ghosts never really were all that clever. The hunter ghost called itself Skulker? The ghost rocker with the flaming ponytail called herself Ember? It really wasn't their strong suit, she thought. "Get anything else about him?" She asked, looking around.

"Other than the fact that he vaporized Aragon and half his court, not much." Sam said, watching as Maddie advised Jack to sit down until his hearing was back. She followed behind her as the older woman carefully checked on all of the girls, and instructed Jazz to call an ambulance in case. Some of them looked as if they'd gotten caught in the crossfire of the ghostly wail, battered and bruised.

Some savior, Maddie thought.

"Vaporized?" She asked, turning back towards Sam.

"That's the best way I can think of putting it." Sam told her, shrugging her shoulders. "He just sort of..." she frowned, looking for the right words. "...sucked up all of Aragon's power and then fired it back at him, but twice as strong. Oh, these weird glowing green wings formed behind him when he did it too- that is, when he was sucking in Aragon's energy."

"I've heard of that." Maddie frowned, logical mind already working, clearer now that most of the ringing had stopped. "Ecto-wings, is what some people call them. But they're purely a theoretical ghost power, nobody has actually ever seen them."

"Well, I think I did." Sam told her. "What are they supposed to be anyways, for clarification?"

Maddie sighed, helping a dazed and confused Paulina to her feet, making sure she was okay, before she turned back to Sam. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out Jazz doing the same with some of the other girls. "Ecto-wings are supposed to be an external storage location for absorbed ecto energy, which can either be saved there for later, or can be redirected from where it came, only amplified by the ghost's own power. It's a very high level skill. There's a leading scientist in the field of Paranormal Science that proposed their existence a little under two years ago. She claimed to have seen them in action."

"So she was probably right." Sam said.

"Most likely." Maddie nodded her head, looking troubled by this information. "Ecto-wings and a ghostly wail... not to mention some fairly powerful ecto flames. It looks like your Phantom is rather strong." Her eyes narrowed. "I don't like this one bit- this is a different type of ghost than we've encountered before." She glanced back over towards Sam. "I want you to promise me that if you see him again, or if Tucker sees him, that you avoid him at all costs, and you call me as quickly as you can."

"That serious?" Sam asked, grimacing a little. The conversation did, however, spark something in her mind that the chaos had caused her to forget for a moment. "That's right, Mrs. Fenton, you need to come over to my place! My mom's against it but I think a ghost tried to attack my father earlier this afternoon."

"What?!" Maddie looked shocked, whirling around and away from the girl she had stopped to help. "Sam, why didn't you say something about this earlier? How's your father, will he be alright?"

"He'll be fine, his throat's just bruised is all." Sam assured her, though she couldn't keep the worry off of her face. "We were having a fight, and then all of a sudden, it was like he couldn't breathe, and something was choking him. I've seen a lot of ghosts Mrs. Fenton, but I haven't seen one do something like that before. And I-" she paused, frowning deeply, eyebrows knitting together as she considered whether or not she should tell the ghost hunter this.

"And you what, Sam?" Maddie asked, carefully putting her hands on the girl's shoulders, concern evident in her eyes. "Don't leave anything out."

"I think it... passed through me for a moment." Sam said, shuddering a little at the memory. She was a strong person, but there were some things that were hard for even her to bear. "It felt... so angry, Mrs. Fenton. Just full of nothing but anger, and it felt almost like was my mind was going to collapse for a second- then everything went back to normal." She told her. She frowned, looking hesitant now, as she was unsure of the next part herself. "And for some reason, that I don't understand, it felt... almost familiar."

"You're sure of this?" Maddie asked her, her expression not giving anything away, but it was clear that the gears in her head were grinding.

Sam nodded. "I'm sure."

"Alright. Thank you for telling me this, Sam. Jack and I will be by your house as soon as we can to install a ghost shield for you, if that will make you feel better." Maddie told her. "Once we wrap things up here, we'll come by. And trust me, we'll convince your mother to let us in."

Somehow, Sam didn't doubt that claim.

* * *

It was late at night when Jazz came back to Fenton Works alone. Her parents had stopped off earlier, to grab equipment to install a ghost shield on Sam's home, but had left right away, and hadn't come back yet. Their dinner lay on the table, stone cold and all but forgotten, and Jazz heaved a sigh, saving what she could. Somehow she didn't feel all that hungry at the moment, and she doubted her mother did either.

Jazz had stayed behind the brief the ambulance workers and the police on the situation. The Red Hunter had taken off sometime after the ghostly wail, but they had never been one for dealing with the police. She had only just been let go, and she was already feeling exhaustion sink into her bones. Heaving a sigh, she took a seat on one of the dining room chairs after she had finished putting everything away- maybe she would save the dishes for the morning, just in case her father of Danny wanted a late night snack or something.

Jazz shot up then, her eyes going wide. That's right, Danny! In all of the commotion, she had nearly forgotten him. Had he come back already? If he had, she surely needed to speak to him!

Jazz hurried up to his room, reaching for the knob, but she found it locked. At least that meant he was probably in there, she thought, but she grunted a little in annoyance. Knocking on the door, she shifted on her feet a little, wondering if he was asleep.

The door cracked open moments later, and a blue eye peered down at her. The door opened wide shortly afterwards, and Danny yawned, blinking wearily at his older sister. "What is it Jazz? I was trying to get some sleep."

"Sorry Danny, but we need to talk." Jazz said, entering his room without permission, all but forcing her way inside. She turned towards him, flicking on his light switch as she did so, and then quickly sucked in her breath. "Jesus _Christ_, Danny."

"Huh?" Danny blinked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He followed her line of vision, glancing downwards. "Oh." He said, placing a hand over his chest, which at the moment, was bare. That's right, he'd fallen asleep in the middle of getting changed, and wasn't wearing much save for his pants. "Um, one second."

"No, you hold on there one minute, Danny." Jazz called out, reaching out for his arm- she paused though, remembering what had happened this morning (had it only been this morning, she thought? It felt like it had been longer.), and thought against it. "You let me see these scars of yours."

"No, really Jazz, you don't need to look at them." Danny grumbled, shooting her a glare. "You shouldn't have seen them in the first place."

"Well I'm glad I did!" Jazz said. "Danny, some of these are outright horrific! Are these _surgical _scars?" She asked, motioning towards a set around his upper right chest.

"What does it matter if they are?" Danny asked, snatching a black T-shirt from where it had been unceremoniously ditched on the floor, tugging it over his head. "I fail to see how it would be any of your business, Jazz."

"Of course it's my business, Danny!" Jazz half-shouted, looking appalled. "You're my little brother, Danny, it sure as hell is my business when I see that my little brother has been hurt! And from the looks of what I just saw, it doesn't just look like it was once or twice, Danny- some of those scars are _at least_ four years old."

She looked at him, expression filled with worry. "What kind of mess have you managed to get yourself into, Danny? What's going on that's so horrible that you can't manage to tell your own family about it? We can help you, you know, and we want to help you." She pleaded with him, and against her better judgement, she reached out and took his wrist in hers.

"Look, I already said it's none of your business." Danny hissed, snatching his wrist away. "I appreciate the concern Jazz," and something in his tone made her think that no, he did not actually appreciate her concern at all, "...but I'm handling my own problems, okay? It's not something that you, or mom or dad, or anyone could even do anything about even if you knew about it. I'm not telling you a single thing."

"Why not?" Jazz asked, crossing her arms, returning her brother's glare. "What is it that has got you clamed up? I thought families were supposed to trust each other. I know mom and dad are a little weird sometimes, but they care for you a lot, Danny, probably more than you know. There's no way that they would stand it, knowing that anything bad has been happening to their son."

Danny groaned, rolling his eyes. "Look, Jazz, it's handled, alright? There's no need for anyone to get involved anymore." He told her.

"Alright then, so what _was _the problem in the first place?" She asked again. "I'm not going to back down on this Danny. I want you to be honest with me. This is important. Someone has clearly been hurting you, and you're asking me to turn the other way and do nothing about it? I can't do that. Not as a future psychologist, and not as your sister."

Danny twitched, now visibly growing more annoyed. "Would you just can it already!?" He yelled, throwing up his hands. "What do you _want _from me Jazz, for me to spill my soul to you? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't even do that sort of thing _before _I ran away, so I've no idea why it is that you expect me to start now! And you don't need to know, either! There's some things people just don't want to talk about, okay?" Danny said.

"Honestly Jazz, putting up with your inquires was one of the reasons I didn't want to come back here in the first place! If it wasn't for Sam, then I probably wouldn't have come home at all!" He snapped, then blanched, as if he suddenly realized he had said too much.

"And?" Jazz asked him, keeping her cool through his tirade. "What's so special about Sam that would make you come back to Amity, that not even your own family can qualify for?" She asked. "Because I've asked Sam, and whatever it is that's going on with you, she's still clearly not nearly important enough to you for you to tell her anything."

"What?" Danny looked insulted by the mere suggestion. "No way, Sam is the most important thing to me." He said. "But she doesn't need to know anything either, not yet anyways."

"Oh, so you're planning on telling Sam something then?" Jazz asked, raising her brows.

The look that her brother shot her then was enough to make Jazz step back a little. For a moment, he didn't look like her younger brother anymore, but rather, like something else- she just couldn't put her finger on what. "Jazz." He said, anger dripping off her name. "Enough already. I've already said I don't want to answer your questions. So you can either leave now, or I can make you leave. It is my room." He added.

"And how exactly do you plan to make me leave?" Jazz asked, steeling herself again.

"Easy." Danny said, all but scooping up his sister and slinging her over his shoulder. Jazz yelped, and pounded against Danny's back, crying for him to let her down. He did so- dumping her right outside his bedroom door, which he then promptly shut and locked behind him.

"Danny!" Jazz sprung to her feet, pounding on his door. "This isn't over, don't think that for one second! I'm going to get the truth out of you, one way or the other!" She glowered at the door when she got no response, kicking it and then turning around in a huff. What was he thinking!? This was clearly an important issue, and he just wasn't going to say anything!?

At least it confirmed his claims of 'not remembering anything' as bullshit. She had pretty much expected that, though. "Mark my words little brother, one way or another, I'm going to find out the truth."

* * *

Maddie Fenton was troubled.

That was perhaps an understatement. After they had gotten back from the Mansons, her husband had excused himself to go to bed, after they checked to assure that Danny had come back home. According to Jazz, he had come back at some point while they were all out, and that she had spoken to him, but what her daughter had to tell her wasn't exactly what Maddie had wanted to hear.

So she found herself in the lab late at night, pouring over a photo album from Danny and Jazz's childhoods. She paused to chuckle at a particularly funny photograph, leaning her chin into her hand. Sometimes looking at family photos helped clear her mind, and her mind was an awfully jumbled mess right now.

She was happy that her son was home. Happier than anything! She didn't care about the piercings, or the tattoos, or the hair or anything that had changed physically about her son- that didn't matter. He was home, safe and sound! Well- he was home at least, she just wasn't so sure about the safe and sound part. He seemed to be in good health for the most part, though she had noticed that he was rather cold to the touch.

But then Jazz had told her about the scars.

Maddie let out a deep sigh, leaning back in her chair. She turned her head, facing it towards the Fenton Ghost Portal, sealed tight for the moment. If only figuring out what was wrong with her son was as easy as inventing new anti-ghost weaponry. That she could almost do in her sleep, but this was another matter entirely.

The appearance of this new ghost also troubled her.

It was a different type of ghost than the ones that normally haunted Amity Park, Maddie could tell that much. It was one that she hadn't encountered before, in her long career of studying ghosts. And that troubled her. She didn't like running into unknown factors, not when they could potentially put her family in danger. As a scientist, the thought of some new breed of ghost excited her, but as a mother, it horrified her. A ghost with enough power to completely vaporize another ghost, and take half a forest with it was a frightening thought.

And for some reason, she felt rather uncomfortable when she realized that this new ghost had appeared around the same time her son had shown up, just a day later. She didn't know why the thought bothered her so much, but it did. And with what Jazz told her today about Danny's scars... maybe there was something to this strange sense of dread that was knotting up in her stomach.

"Oh, you're still up?"

Her son's voice startled her out of her thoughts, and she laughed a little, looking over at her son, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the lab. "Danny!" She couldn't help but smile, putting aside her worries and fears for a moment and stood up, walking over towards her son. "Yes, I've just got a lot on my mind, that's all. It's nothing to worry about. What about you?" She asked. "It's late. You should be sleeping."

"I'm not tired." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders. He glanced over towards the photo album on the desk and quirked an eyebrow. "What are you doing? Looking through old photos?" Danny peered back at his mother, an unreadable expression on his face. "You're worried about something, aren't you?"

Maddie laughed a little. "I suppose you could say that." She told him. She resisted the urge to ask about the scars right away- it would work better, she thought, if she eased him into that conversation. Maybe there was another subject they could discuss at the moment. "I don't know if Jazz has told you this, but a new ghost appeared today."

"Oh, is that so?" Danny asked, glancing over his shoulder at her as he went to pick up the photo album himself. He snorted when he looked at one of the pictures, grinning a little. "I remember this! I mean, I don't remember exactly what Tucker did to upset Sam so badly that she decided that the best way to take revenge was to put sand down his pants, but I remember this! Tucker wouldn't stop crying for hours. I'm pretty sure he got so upset about the fact that I was laughing at him that he tried to put sand down my pants too." He shook his head. "And he hasn't changed at all since then. Well, he doesn't try to put sand down people's pants anymore, because that would be childish, and he's not really a child anymore, but-"

He blinked then, suddenly realizing that he had been drifting off subject, and flushed brightly. "Ah, sorry." He really had to watch himself- if he let himself ramble like that, he might accidentally give away something he didn't want his mother to hear. "You were saying something about a new ghost? What kind of ghost could possibly cause you such concern?" He asked, despite knowing the answer.

The ghost she was worried about was unmistakably him.

"No, it's okay." Maddie said, smiling a little. "That's right. In the forest today, a ghost named Aragon attempted to kidnap many of the teenage girls of Amity Park." She paused, realizing that her son had no way of knowing who Aragon was. "Aragon is a ghost from the medieval ages who seems to be fascinated with having the one thing that nobody else in the Ghost Zone has- a human bride. He's been trying time and time again to kidnap one."

"Sounds like a creep." Danny commented, setting the photo album back down. Well, that explained the whole knight and throne thing he had going on. What was the deal with the dragon transformation though? He had never heard anything about that ability before. At least, Mori had never brought it up in any of his ramblings, not that he recalled.

"Creep's a good word for it." Maddie laughed, in spite of herself. "He and his sister- she's not really a threat, by the way," she added. "...both possess amulets that allow them to transform into dragons. I suppose they had them when they were still human, and the magical nature of the amulets allowed them to follow their spirits after death." She told him. "Of course, that's just a theory. I specialize in Paranormal Science, and not magic after all. That's a whole other field of study." She said, chuckling.

Maddie continued, but took note of the fact that her casual mention of magic being real didn't get any incredulity from her son at all. Then again, perhaps he was just used to it, being the son of two ghost hunters, and having heard all sorts of crazy sounding things ever since he was a child. "By the time your father and I arrived, another ghost had already come along and wiped out Aragon and all of his knights." She told him, frowning now.

"And that's the new ghost you're worried about?" Danny asked, quirking a brow. He was right on the mark, no real surprise there.

"That's right." Maddie nodded her head, crossing her arms. "He didn't just defeat Aragon, he vaporized him." She said. "I searched for traces of his spectral energy, but I turned up nothing. That's a very disturbing thing to be able to do, Danny." She told him, starting to pace back and forth. "He had two relatively high class abilities, one of which was just a theory. I didn't think I would ever see something like ecto wings in use- I initially dismissed it as a crackpot theory at first."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Ecto wings?" He knew what she was talking about, of course, he just didn't know they had a name. That was something someone had theorized? "W-who thought up that theory?" He asked, hesitating at first.

Maddie pondered the question. "If I recall correctly, it was a Paranormal Science researcher who hadn't done much with ghosts before. No, I'm pretty this was the first ghost related report she had ever published. That's why I wasn't sure if it should have been viewed as valid research or not, although a lot of the other research she produces is very high quality and rather groundbreaking. I'm not sure how she does it, to be honest, given her age."

"What was her name?" Danny asked.

"Mm, let's see." Maddie frowned, trying to remember. She didn't really pay much attention to any of the Paranormal Science going around other than what involved ghosts, so it wasn't exactly on the tip of her tongue. "I believe her last name was Clayborne, or something like that."

It was as if someone had set off a bomb in his mind. Just the name alone was enough to send a wave of rage seething through him. Unsteady on his feet, he placed a hand on the desk chair, trying to focus himself on something, anything, feeling that cold sensation within him trying to surge forth. Taking in and letting out ragged breaths, Danny barely noticed when his mother rushed over to his side, calling out to him in concern. When she touched him, however, it was like an electric jolt ran through his body, and without thinking, he found himself pushing her away.

It was her cry of pain that brought him back to his senses, and his mind came back to him at all once. In a rush, he saw his mother on the floor, nursing what appeared to be a broken wrist. For a long moment, he couldn't decide what emotion he should feel in this situation, lost and searching for a response he didn't know how to properly give anymore. This was his mother but he didn't care about his mother but his mother was hurt but he didn't care about his mother but she was his mother and he had hurt her but he didn't care about his mother but she was his mother and she loved him anyways but there was no real way she could love him no not if she knew everything so there was no reason for him to love her so there was no reason for him to care if she was hurt but she was his mother and so...

"Danny!" Maddie called out to him, pulling herself back to her feet. She checked her right wrist, frowning deeply. It felt like she had broken it when she landed, but it was hard to tell without a proper X-ray. Although her head was swimming in pain, her concern for her son was more important. Her wrist could wait, but she was convinced that her son was having a mental breakdown right in front of her, and she had no idea what could have possibly caused it. Was it something she had said? But the only thing she had done was mentioned the last name of the researcher, the one he had asked about.

But why had he asked about it in the first place? Danny had never shown that much interest in her work. No, this wasn't the time to wonder about that. Helping her son came first.

"Danny!" Maddie called again. "Danny, I'm okay, really. Please, it's okay, just calm down." She tried to assure him. "Just take deep breaths. It's okay Danny, it's going to be okay." It was no good, it wasn't working, he was clearly panicking. Her mind raced, not knowing what to do. He clearly didn't want her to touch him, but he didn't seem to be hearing her. Perhaps her next move was against her better judgement, but she didn't know what else to do. Maddie considered herself to be a good mother, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do when faced with what appeared to be the mental breakdown of one of her own children.

So Maddie did the only thing she could think of, and wrapped her arms around him, pulling her son into a tight embrace. She could feel his ice cold skin against her and almost hear his heart pounding like it wanted to escaped from his chest. But he didn't push her away this time, and he slowly seemed to calm down, and come back to reality. "It's okay, Danny, just calm down. I'm going to be fine." She said slowly.

"I... that's..." He stumbled over his words, an indescribable mixture of emotions coming over his face, as if he couldn't figure out how he was supposed to react to this. He turned his gaze away from Maddie's in the end though, pushing her lightly away from him, breaking the embrace. "I'm sorry." He mumbled, barely audible.

"Danny, it's okay. It was just an accident." She said, frowning a little when he pushed her away again. "It's probably only just twisted a little, I know you didn't mean to. I'm sorry honey, I should have remembered, it's just that you looked like you were going through some sort of episode and I..."

"I'm fine." He said shortly, suddenly regaining his composure. A glower appeared on his face as he backed away from her. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm fine."

"I don't think you are honey." Maddie said after a moment. "Jazz told me about the scars."

Danny's eyes narrowed at this, but somehow, he wasn't surprised. Jazz never could keep her mouth shut. "It doesn't matter." He said shortly, expression once more becoming unreadable. "It's not any concern of yours."

"Danny, honey, please." Maddie implored him. "Something is wrong with you and we just want to help you."

"Nothing is _wrong _with me!" He nearly hissed, eyes blazing fury. It was all he could do to keep them from turning crimson. "I'm fine! And if people would just leave me alone and stop shoving questions at me, I'd be even better! Why won't you people just leave me alone already?! I was better off never coming back at this rate!" He snapped.

"Please don't say that." Maddie said, frowning at him. "We're all very happy you're home, Danny, and I'm sorry if you think we're being annoying. We're just concerned. You have to understand that."

"Well, maybe you should be less concerned." Danny grumbled.

"We can't." Maddie told him simply. "You're my son, and Jack's too. You're Jazz's little brother, you're our family, Danny. We love you and we care about you. Worries and concern come naturally with that."

"Well it's annoying." Danny frowned. "There's no reason to care so much."

Maddie heaved a sigh, running a hand through her hair with her good hand. "Alright Danny. I won't ask you anymore questions for now. It's late, you must be tired. But if something like that happens again young man, I want you to talk to me. Don't shut me out Danny, don't shut us out."

"I make no promises." Danny said shortly. He hesitated then, glancing at his mother's right wrist. "...Are you sure you're going to be fine?"

"Yes, I can feel the pain subsiding already. I can X-ray it myself if I feel that I need to." Maddie assured him. She bit her tongue, preventing herself from asking if he was alright again- she had promised him no more questions for the moment. "Why don't you just go on to bed, honey. You probably have a long day in front of you tomorrow."

For a moment longer, Danny hesitated, before he turned away from his mother. "...night." He said, before trotting back up the stairs. Maddie could hear him muttering underneath his breath as he did so, and she heaved a sigh.

Really, what had happened to her precious baby boy? She didn't need to be a psychologist in training like Jazz to know that something was terribly wrong. People just didn't flip out like that at the drop of a hat, and she was more than a little concerned about how badly he reacted to people touching him when he didn't expect it. There was something unnatural about it, unnatural about the strength he head.

Speaking of his strength, something quickly caught Maddie's attention now that Danny was gone. She hadn't been focusing on it earlier, trying to get him to calm down, unable to think of anything else, but now that she saw it, her jaw dropped.

The chair she used for her lab desk was made out of metal, and yet, somehow it was crumpled from the force of Danny's grip on it earlier. Carefully, Maddie placed a hand on it, as if to confirm what was before her was real, and not some kind of strange illusion. But it was, it was very real and she absolutely couldn't understand it.

"...How?"

* * *

Maddie Fenton wasn't the only person burning the midnight oil, as it turned out. Far away from Amity Park, May Clayborne paced in her office, awaiting news to confirm her suspicions. She had been hearing strange reports come out of a town called Amity Park, a place known as the most haunted city in America. If there was some place a ghost was going to hide, that would probably be it- but of course, there was more reason for this ghost in particular to choose to hide in Amity Park.

He had family there, after all. And broken as he was, May had no doubt that one day he would find his way back there.

"Oh good, you're back." May smiled with delight as her door opened and she turned around, looking at the person who had entered. He looked a few years younger than her, most likely in his early twenties, and resembled her in a strong way. Where May was orderly however, he was a mess, his brown hair worn shaggy and somewhat long, to his shoulders, and his blank brown eyes had deep rings under them as if he never slept at all. "Well? Is my hunch correct?"

"So it would seem." The man responded, in a rather monotone voice, as he passed over the papers he was holding to her. She flipped through them, giving a triumphant grin. "There's been sightings of both of his forms." He said after a moment. "What should I do?"

"Hm, let's see." May paused, taking a seat on her desk, seeming to ponder the question for a few moments. Looking down at the documentation in front of her, she stopped at a file on someone known as 'The Red Hunter', and smirked. "Why don't we try hiring some local help, first? You know how busy I am, Matthew, I just can't leave the lab on such a whim. Even if it is for a prize experimental subject."

She tossed the file back towards Matthew, who caught it neatly. "Go to Amity Park and get in contact with this Red Hunter. I don't care how you do it, threaten her loved ones if it's necessary, but do employ her services for us." She said. "Do tell her not to break my important research material though. After all the work I put into the little ghost boy, it would just be such an awful shame to lose him. After all, there's really no one else like him!"

"If I'm in Amity Park myself, why don't you just let me take care of him?" Matthew asked.

"You destroy too much." May frowned, shooting a pointed glare at the boy. "I can't risk losing this test subject. Besides that, you have no familiarity at all with anti ghost weaponry. It's better to use someone with experience."

"Then, what about the Fenton couple?" Matthew asked.

"Ah, yes, the Fenton couple." May smirked a little, laughing. "They won't do for now. I don't just intend to smoke him out and capture him that easily, after all. No, he escaped because deep in his heart, he still had the laughable thought that he had someplace to return to." She said, shaking her head. "Such a thing just won't do. If I don't nip that in the bud, he'll just keep trying to escape from me again and again, and that will get awfully tiring."

"No, it's better to make him suffer and squirm as much as possible. After all, who would have thought that the child of two ghost hunters would have become a ghost himself?" She laughed. "There's no way his parents would love him after they learned such a thing. No, I intend to make him come back here himself if possible. Make him learn once and for all that there is nowhere else but here for a freak like him! And I'll take him back in with loving arms!" She said, opening her arms, and laughing.

"He can consider that as his punishment for escaping and daring to harm me." May said, laying a hand on the scar on her left leg.

"What should I do if anyone gets in my way?" Matthew inquired.

"Hm, let's see. I would say to kill them, but that would be an awful waste of resources." May pondered the question. "Bring them to me if they do. After all, it doesn't hurt to have a few normal humans to tinker with as well. They could provide very interesting results!"

Matthew slowly nodded his head. "Very well. Is there anything else?"

"No, nothing comes to mind at the moment. Ah, but if you can, try and catch some of those ghosts over there that everyone keeps talking about, okay? I'd love to play around with some of them." May told him, her smile tight and chilling. She watched the young man leave, before she picked up the file on her desk, smiling at the picture of a black haired, blue eyed boy who stared back at her.

"What a shame, Daniel. You really should have stayed in the Ghost Zone after all." May quirked her eyebrow. "But I wonder what was so important to you that you had to come out of hiding for it~? I'm curious after all."

"Although, I think I have a suspicion." She said to herself, turning a few pages until she came upon a photograph of a black haired, violet eyed girl. "And I really can't wait to meet this Sam Manson myself."


	5. There Was a Gray Woman Who Became Red

Author's Note: Chapter Five is here! Now we're getting somewhere, and the plot divergence from the original is starting to show itself in full. Things are much, much more complicated this time around! I'm rather pleased with this chapter, so I hope everyone else likes it as well!

As always, Danny Phantom is not mine- May and Matthew Clayborne are, however. Please read and review, if you could be so kind!

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions REDUX

Chapter Five: There Once Was a Gray Woman who Became Red

"Calm down Valerie, if you punch that thing any harder, you're going to break it."

Letting out a deep breath, Valerie Gray turned to face her father, who was looking at her with deep concern. "Sorry dad." She said after a moment. "I'm just a little annoyed. I thought it was better to take it out on a punching bag than anything that could actually be hurt by it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Her father asked, taking a seat on her bed. In her cramped bedroom, there was no space for a seating area, so they had to make do. They had surely come a long way from how they used to live, Valerie thought glumly, as she took a seat on the other end of the bed, the mattress creaking in protest as she sat down.

"It's not much." She said, frowning a little. "Just an annoying ghost, that's all. Cocky little-" She quickly cut herself short as she realized that her father might not appreciate the language that she was about to use. As it was, he simply raised an eyebrow, choosing to hold his tongue for a moment. "I just thought I would try to let off a little steam. I'll get him next time though."

"Honey, you know how I feel about your ghost hunting." Her father began, giving his daughter a long look. It had been on pure accident that he had even found out to begin with, after he began to become curious as to what the mysterious packages she was receiving were. He still had no lead as to where they came from, which was the thing that bothered him the most, to be honest. "I only agreed to it because I knew you would just go behind my back anyways, so I wanted to at least put myself in a position where I could keep an eye on your safety. And you did promise, Valerie, that you would be careful. From the sound of it, I take it this ghost you fought wasn't a pushover...?"

"He was just slippery, that's all." Valerie said shortly, crossing her arms. "You don't need to worry about me, dad, I know what I'm doing. I'm not exactly an amateur."

"But you are still an eighteen year old girl, a high school student." Damon pointed out. "I'm your father, you need to let me worry about you. Don't go fighting any ghosts unless you are sure you can handle them." He told her, standing up and ruffling her hair a little. "Now, I have to get going. I've got the late night shift today. Don't stay up too late, okay sweetie?"

"I won't. Sleeping well is part of staying healthy." Valerie said, giving her father a small smile. "Good luck at work, dad. Show 'em what a great security guard you are and maybe you'll get that promotion in no time. They were talking about that at work, weren't they?"

"That they were!" Damon gave his daughter a smile. "I'll be able to get a little more money in if I do get promoted. Maybe we'll go out to eat if it happens." He promised her.

"As long as it's anywhere but the Nasty Burger." Valerie laughed, getting back up. "I'll see you later dad." She told him, watching as he left her room and heard the sound of the front door shutting. It was sort of hard to believe that her father, once a high powered designer of security systems on the cutting edge of technology, had fallen so far as to only become a measly security guard. It was all because of that blasted debt he owed to Axiom Labs- and it was all because of those blasted ghosts that he owed it in the first place.

And that was what gave her the drive to hunt them in the first place. As for her equipment- well, Valerie didn't have the answers to that, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Obviously someone who had heard about the situation had heard about her abilities and talents, and had decided that she had a promising career as a ghost hunter- and Valerie had to agree.

There was a knock on the front door then, and Valerie frowned. "Dad?" She called out, heading into the living room. "Did you forget your keys again?" She asked, opening up the door- and stopped in her tracks. The person at the front door was unmistakably not her father, and in fact was a face she had never seen before. She was about to shut the door on his face, assuming he was some kind of door to door salesman (although this late?) when he stopped her, sticking his foot in the door.

"The Red Hunter, correct?" The man begun, and Valerie pegged him for being at least in his early twenties. He looked vaguely uncomfortable in his neat looking suit, with his dark brown hair slicked back and neatly arranged, as if he would rather be wearing anything else. But it was his eyes that struck her the most- utterly empty and devoid of any real emotion, as if he were a person who had no real thoughts or feelings of his own.

"Who wants to know?" Valerie asked, once again attempting to shut the door. She got a feeling that she didn't like this guy, and didn't like his business. But he was strong, and the door barely budged- and Valerie knew that she was no pushover.

"Earlier, you encountered a ghost you hadn't seen before, correct?" The man simply asked, avoiding her question for the moment. This did, however, give Valerie pause, and it was enough for the man to force the door all the way open, stepping inside, and she couldn't help but note that he was rather on the tall side. "White hair, crimson eyes, rather nasty attitude?"

"What about him?" Valerie asked, placing her hands on her hips. If this guy tried something, she was sure that she could take him- he seemed pretty on the scrawny side, at any rate. That said, upon taking a better look at him, she realized that he was hardly unarmed- there were signs of numerous concealed weapons on his body, and most likely there were others still, ones that she couldn't see.

"My employer would like to hire you to take care of him. Ah, but by take care of him, I do not mean destroy." He said. "Forgive me, my name is Matthew Clayborne. I am an employee of The Institute. We are a research group funded by the government, dedicated to studying the paranormal in hopes of providing protection against them." He explained to her. "Phantom was one of our research subjects, but he escaped from our facility a year ago, and we have been trying to track him ever since."

"Phantom?" Valerie snorted, in spite of herself. "Not the most creative of names."

The man made no comment on her joke, almost as if it didn't register with him. It was a bit eerie really, as if he were reading from some kind of invisible script. "He's a very dangerous subject, and we would like to see him captured and returned to us as soon as possible, Miss Gray. We did our research into the ghost hunters of Amity Park, and we heard that your reputation was one of great competence."

Valerie couldn't help it- she glowed a little at the praise. So her reputation had already spread that far? Still, this was suspicious. "Oh? Why me and not the Fenton family? I know Jack Fenton's reputation isn't all that stellar, but surely Maddie Fenton is going to be more skilled then a high school student." She said, not letting her eyes leave this bastard for one second.

"We looked into the Fenton couple as well, but we decided that Jack Fenton's incompetence outweighed his wife's competence." Matthew said simply. "However, Miss Gray, we do not plan on hiring your services without providing you with a reward. There is a one million dollar bounty for Phantom's return to us at the Institute. I believe that would be more than enough to cover your father's debt with Axiom Labs."

"How do you know about that!?" Valerie snapped, eyes narrowing. Figuring out her identity as the Red Hunter was suspicious enough, but these people knew about the debt as well?

Still.

Wiping away her father's debt in one fell swoop was an enticing offer.

"We have our ways, Miss Gray." Matthew gave her a business smile, setting down a briefcase on the dining table. Opening it up with a clack, he pulled out several folders, filled to the brim with information. "We have also come prepared with extensive information about Phantom, in regards to his powers and abilities. These should come in handy and give you an upper hand on him when it comes to combat. Phantom, like all ghosts, works very much on instinct- he doesn't do much in the way of planning. Perhaps you noticed that in your recent scuffle with him."

"I may have." Valerie said slowly, picking up some of the papers. "What's a demigeist?" She asked, scanning over it. She had, of course, read up on ghosts since she started her ghost hunting gig, but this was a term that she had never encountered before.

"Ah yes." Matthew nodded his head. "A demigeist is a rare creature indeed, which is why he is so valuable to us as a research subject, and why we cannot simply have him destroyed." He told her. "A demigeist is a high class ghost that possess many features in common with a poltergeist, which I am sure you've heard of." When that got a short nod from Valerie, he continued. "A demigeist differs from a poltergeist in that they have a solid physical form- very solid for a ghost, in fact. They're probably quite close to humans in terms of physique. It would be a bit complicated to go into an in depth explanation, but suffice to say that they are regarded as something as the worst kind of monster by those who are interested in the spectral."

"Especially Phantom. Among demigeists he is... unique." Matthew said slowly. "And he seems to have decided to attach himself to Amity Park. The longer he stays here, no doubt the more damage that he will do. Likely, the town's other ghosts may fall in line with him, if they do not leave out of fear. It's to your best interest, Miss Gray, and the interests of those within Amity Park, that he is dealt with quickly before that can happen. Because then it won't just be Phantom that you'll have to worry about."

Valerie frowned, eyes narrowing, and unbidden, her father's words about not fighting ghosts beyond her abilities came back to her. Placing down the sheet of papers she was looking at, she turned towards Matthew, thinking about refusing his offer.

But then, the idea of wiping the debt clean... she bit her lip, clearly hesitating. As if catching this, Matthew continued.

"Of course, should you accept the request and later decide that it is too hazardous for you, you will be allowed to sever your connection with us." He told her plainly. Of course, that wasn't true, but she didn't need to know that. "And you will be compensated for any damaged equipment, and any medical fees incurred during the period of time in which you are hunting him will be covered by us."

"It is quite a good deal, if I do say so myself. You really have nothing to lose, Miss Gray." He said.

Clenching her fist, Valerie took in and let out a deep breath. "Alright." She said finally, meeting eyes with him- although she had to look away shortly after. Something about those empty eyes put her ill at ease. "I'll do it."

"Very good!" Matthew said, smiling at her. He busied himself then, emptying out the rest of the briefcase's contents on the dining table. "Here is my number." He told her once he was done, handing her a business card. "Should you have any need to speak to me in regards to the hunt, please do not hesitate to contact me. I don't think you'll regret taking us up on this offer, Miss Gray. And of course, if the matter concerns you, it will be kept classified from your father until the deal is done."

Valerie gave the man a sharp nod, and tried her best to ignore the twisted feeling in the bottom of her stomach. It was a good offer, one that she could back out of anytime if it really did get too risky for her-

...so why did she feel as if she had just signed over her soul?

* * *

Danny groaned a little, slowly blinking awake. He wasn't sure what time he had finally fallen asleep last night, but it probably was pretty late. Blearily, he glanced over towards the alarm clock on his desk, before realizing that it had broken some time ago, probably from being left on non-stop for the past four years, with nobody to look after it. Grumbling, he slowly pulled himself up, in a daze, wondering what had disturbed him from his, for once, rather peaceful slumber.

Nights when he didn't have nightmares were rare indeed.

"Danny! Danny boy!" His father's voice called outside of the door, vaguely reminding him of a cat desperately wanting to be let inside. "Come on Danny, wake up, you've got school to go to today! Come on Danny, up and at 'em!" He called out again, pounding on the door.

Groaning, Danny pulled himself to his feet, placing a hand on his forehead. How long had his father been doing that? He was persistent. He was tempted to just skip out of the house and not bother with this whole blasted 'school' thing- what purpose did he have in going, anyways? It wasn't like he planned to stick around and be a goody two shoes student- in fact there wasn't a chance in hell that would happen.

But Sam would be there, and that was enough to make Danny finally heave a sigh, grabbing and tugging on his knit cap, before he finally opened the door. "Yeah, yeah, I'm awake." He said, glancing tiredly up at his father. "What time is it?"

"Time to go to school!" His father said, rather unhelpfully. It would seem that his mother hadn't told him about last night's events, a mercy at least. Knowing his father, no doubt that he would try and use one of his weird anti-ghost inventions to 'suck the evil ghost out of him.'

If only it were that simple.

"Right." Danny grumbled. "Lemme shower first." He muttered, yawning again. No nightmares were a good thing, but he guessed that he still hadn't gotten anywhere near enough sleep. Not that this was unusual for him, rather, it was pretty much standard for him. It was even worse when he was still imprisoned at The Institute. There were probably some weeks in which he was lucky to get one hour of sleep in for the entire week.

"Right!" Jack grinned, patting his son on the back, and it took everything in Danny's power to not snap his arm in half from the contact. As it was, he visibly flinched and shuddered, which Jack clearly took the wrong way.

"Oh sorry, too much power?" He laughed. "My bad, Danny boy! But food's on the table when you're done, but you'd better hurry up! School starts soon. Honestly, you should be glad they're letting you go at all after yesterday's debacle with the Baxter kid. Ah, not that I blame you entirely, Danny, I believe that you didn't mean to do it."

His father was naive as always, Danny noted. He was probably also the only one who actually believed that lie.

Well, whatever. One gullible parent made things easier for him.

"Right." Danny said, frowning a little. Grumbling to himself, he headed to the bathroom, careful to lock the door behind him, and started up the shower. "Pain in the ass family." He mumbled underneath his breath. Staying here was stifling to be honest. He felt almost as if he was going to drown in their offers of kindness and their sincerity. None of them had any idea, any idea at all as to what he had been through, and as much as he wanted it that way, it also made him a little angry. What had they even been doing for the past four years? Had they tried to find him at all? Maybe if they'd bothered to work a little harder, he wouldn't have had to suffer.

His mother even knew who that blasted woman was! Had she met her in person before? They walked the same circles, after all. Had she spoken to her while he was trapped in that hell? Had that woman talked to his mother, had friendly chats with her before going back to conduct some new wicked experiment on him? Had they had tea and cakes before she went back to the lab to give him a vivisection? Did she happily discuss results on her ghostly test subject with his mother, while she had been blissfully unaware that the person (no not person not a person can't be a considered that anymore) she was cutting up was her own son?

No no no, he reminded himself, his mother just said she had read something May had published. That was all, they weren't friends, they didn't know each other. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, he steadied himself. He couldn't let himself get carried away with his thoughts like that. He needed to focus, to keep himself from letting himself get consumed by rage and anger, had to remind himself that most of the time it was completely unwarranted.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Finally finishing his shower, he quickly dried off and tossed on some clothes, pausing to glance in the mirror. They were some new ones that his mother had bought him, and honestly, it was a little nice to have something that wasn't worn and torn around the edges. A plain black tank top, over a long sleeved dark gray shirt, and a pair of black jeans. Pulling on his fingerless gloves, securing the black leather bracelets over them so that the barcode brands on his wrists were concealed, he tugged his cap again neatly over his pointed ears. A cursory look at his nails told him they didn't need to be trimmed again, they hadn't started growing back into claws just yet.

When had his human form started to become so monstrous too? Was this body he was in now even able to be considered 'human'?

No it wasn't not human couldn't be human could never be human again a monster something that didn't deserve to exist why was he alive why did he bother he wasn't human anymore just a monster nothing more-

Gritting his teeth, Danny clenched his fists, taking in and letting out another deep breath. No, it didn't matter, that didn't matter. He was fine, he was just fine.

_No, you're not._

"Shut up." He hissed, although he knew it was only his own thoughts. Finally able to get his emotions back in check, he headed down the stairs, a bit surprised to find both his mother and father waiting at the table for him. It would seem that Jazz had already gone out, and Danny wondered how early she had classes. He didn't understand morning people, but he was pretty sure that he didn't understand them even before he had become like this.

"Thanks for the food." He said, chancing a glance over towards his mother. Against his expectations, she smiled over at him, as if nothing at all had happened last night. Had she just decided to ignore it? Or was she pretending everything was okay for his own sake? Honestly, the thought of the latter made him a little sick. Why would she even care?

"Eat up, there's plenty!" Maddie said, smiling as she took a bite out of her grapefruit. She had bandaged up her wrist, although this was hidden underneath her jumpsuit. She didn't want Danny or Jack, who she hadn't told about last night's incident, to see it. She wasn't sure which one she was trying to hide it more from, to be honest. Last night's events still deeply troubled her- and for some reason, she felt almost a vague sense of relief when it seemed it was the same for her son.

The mental breakdown that he appeared to be having troubled her far more than the dented metal chair- although that bothered her too. Gaining skill at fighting, she could believe, it had been four years, and Danny had been doing who knows what during that period of time. But to dent a metal chair with one hand? No human could do that.

A ghost could, though.

She wasn't sure why the thought had struck her- Danny clearly wasn't a ghost. He was very cold, yes, but he was alive, he had a pulse and a heartbeat, and he breathed. For a moment, her thoughts danced to a possible overshadowing- but no, that would have no effect on his human physique, not unless he'd been possessed by something like a poltergeist. And Maddie surely would have noticed _that_.

Taking a bite out of the bacon on his plate, Danny gave a small smile- well, at least he hadn't lost his ability to enjoy food. His mother's cooking wasn't as good as he remembered it, but compared to what he had been eating at that place- it was pretty much heaven. Before he knew it, he had devoured everything on his plate. It had been awhile since he'd been able to eat like this, and that, at least, was nice.

"That's my boy!" Jack grinned, watching Danny scarf down his food. "You need to put some meat on your bones, Danny! You were always a scrawny kid, but you're practically skin and bones!"

"Now Jack, let Danny be." Maddie said lightly, neatly finishing her own breakfast, biting back a wince when she moved her wrist in way that opened up a fresh bout of pain. She couldn't let it show on her face. "Come on though, we'd better get you to school. If we loiter here any longer, we'll be late."

"Are you sure they're really letting me back in?" Danny couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"They are." She said with a small nod. "I spoke to Mr. Lancer last night to be sure. Although you will be on watch, he said. Since you technically weren't a student at the time, they can't really give you punishment and since Dash didn't insist on it..." She shrugged her shoulders. Frankly, Maddie was glad for it. The last thing her son needed was more setbacks in trying to reclaim his normal life.

Although sometimes, Maddie wondered if such a thing were really possible.

* * *

They probably should have arrived late after all, Danny thought, as they made their way through the hall, headed once more for Mr. Lancer's office. Although he was sure that the students around them thought they were whispering, Danny could still hear them loud and clear as if they were speaking directly to him. It took everything he had not to send them each a fearsome glower- he wasn't supposed to be hearing what he was hearing, after all.

_"Is that really the Fenton kid? The one who disappeared four years ago?"_

_"I heard he was kidnapped."_

_"Did you hear he broke Dash's arm? The bone was sticking out and everything! Poor guy, I can't believe he did that to him!"_

_"Dash deserved it. He only got what was coming to him."_

_"Isn't he a bit scary? His eyes look unnatural, don't they? It's not just me, is it?"_

_"So fast it was like lighting. Is he even human?"_

_"Is that really Danny Fenton? Wasn't he a ninety pound weakling or something?"_

By the time they finally reached Mr. Lancer's office, suffice to say, Danny was half tempted to forget pretending to be normal, and was ready to tell them to shut their sorry asses up. Thankfully, there was someone waiting at the door to Mr. Lancer's office that swept that all away, and his eyes almost lit up, a grin quickly appearing on his face as he spotted her.

"Sam!" He said, entirely forgetting that the last time they had spoken, they had fought with each other. He had put it from his mind already- but it would seem that his goth friend hadn't, and gave him a bit of a sour look.

"Hi, Danny. Mrs. Fenton." She said, nodding her head at Maddie. "Mr. Lancer wants to discuss some final details with you, but he says for me to take Danny on with me." She told her. Maddie nodded, saying her goodbyes to her son, before she headed into Lancer's office, leaving the pair alone.

"You look like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Danny said, sounding rather cheerful. "Something happen?"

"What, your mom didn't tell you about Aragon?" She said. "That, and we think a ghost tried to kill my dad." She told him, a grim expression crossing her face, a shiver running up her spine as she thought about it. "Thankfully, your parents came over to install a ghost shield in my house and-" She paused, blinking. "Danny, are you okay?"

His parents had _what_?

Well sure, he had tried to scare Sam's father a little- he hadn't been trying to kill him, at least not after Sam took it badly, anyways. Sam would be sad if her father died, right? If he had been the Danny of earlier, surely he would have been disturbed at how much the answer to that question confused him- as it stood, it did. Sam's parents were the bane of her existence, as far as he could recall, and surely it would just be better to see them dead, so they couldn't bother her anymore. But she had been sad and horrified and scared when he had started to choke her father, which he could barely understand. Why would you want someone in your life who constantly caused you grief? Wouldn't it just be easier to just kill them?

He didn't understand the reasoning for Sam's negative reaction, but if Sam was distressed, then he couldn't have that. So he had stopped.

But his parents had dared to install such a thing in her home? The next chance he got, he would go and rip the blasted thing to shreds. How dare they try and get in his way, in between him and Sam?

No, that wasn't right, they didn't know, they were just trying to keep Sam safe, that was most likely what they thought. Calm down, he thought, taking in and letting out another deep breath- before smiling at Sam, as if he had never been upset over anything at all. "Oh sorry! I'm fine, just a bit distracted there. I see, that sounds pretty dangerous! It's a good thing my parents have something like that, huh? I don't remember them having built something like that, though."

"It happened while you were gone." Sam said slowly, almost getting whiplash from how quickly Danny had changed his moods. He was doing a lot of that, she noticed, and she knew that wasn't exactly normal. What the hell was going on with him? It was enough to make her want to grab him by the shoulders and shake it out of him. "It became a necessity, what with all of the ghost attacks we've been having. Oh, speaking of ghosts though, I saw a weird one last night."

"Weird? That Aragon you mentioned?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No, no, this ghost who called himself Phantom." Sam told him. "He was the most human I'd ever seen a ghost look and yet..." She frowned, opening her mouth to say that he was more like a monster- but something made her stop, an alarm bell ringing in her head that this was not something she should say.

At least not to Danny.

Danny blinked. Sam had thought he was weird? Well, he guessed he was a pretty special ghost. Honestly though, it upset him a little- he had been trying to help Sam, who was in danger. And then everything had gotten out of hand after she had asked him to help the others- and of course, because it was Sam who asked it, he had complied. He had done something good, and yet he had still been attacked, not only by his own parents, but that Red Hunter. He hadn't even done anything wrong, and he had been attacked anyways.

Not that it surprised him. He was, after all, a monster. They were probably afraid of him. He'd accepted this fact, accepted the fact that his parents, no, that no one, no one but Sam could ever accept what he was, what he had become. And he was a monster, wasn't he?

No human, you're still human, you're not a monster those are her words only just her words not a monster human normal human but not human not human never human never human again monster monster monster.

"Sam?" A voice spoke up, and Danny tensed- he knew this voice. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked over towards the source, spotting an African-American teenager, her hair a mass of dark curls. "Whose this? You stuck guiding around a transfer student?" She asked, glancing over at Danny, no recognition passing through her features.

"I think that makes you about the only student in school who hasn't heard, Valerie." Sam said, looking at the girl. "This is Danny."

Danny swore that he almost heard the girl's jaw drop.

Wasn't this the Red Hunter, though? Her voice was exactly the same- how did nobody else notice this? Well, at any rate, she didn't seem to recognize him at all, which was fine- at least he knew who to keep an eye on now. He was a little surprised that she was a high school student, however, he had been expecting someone a little older.

"Are you serious?" Valerie asked, looking from Sam, to Danny, then back to Sam again. "The missing kid? I don't remember Danny Fenton being all..." She paused, obviously searching for a word for it, before giving up. "...like that." She said finally.

"Well, that's okay because I don't remember you at all." Danny said, shrugging his shoulders. Sam had called her Valerie, but the name wasn't ringing any bells. She must have not been very important to him, if he had forgotten her entirely.

"This is Valerie, Valerie Gray." Sam told him, glancing up at him. Tucker was pretty audible about the crush he had on her in freshman year, so she found it a little curious how easily he had seemed to have forgotten her. "And yes, this is Danny Fenton, the missing kid who is no longer so missing. He's going to be shadowing me in class for awhile, until Lancer can work something out in regards to his education."

"Well good luck with that." Valerie said dryly. Somehow she didn't feel as if she would want to be stuck leading around someone like this. Everything about him screamed trouble, and although she recalled Sam being best friends with Danny back when he was still around, this person before her was not the Danny Fenton that she vaguely recalled. It was something in the way that he held her gaze, something in the way he held himself, that spoke to him being more of a predator, something dangerous. Valerie knew a strong person when she saw one, and this was not someone that she wanted to show her back to.

And then suddenly, his expression changed, as if he had caught something- at first, he visibly paled, all color draining from his face. A twitch ran through his body next, as if he were fighting off the urge to do something, before he finally managed to calm himself. Sam hadn't noticed, but Valerie sure as hell did, since whatever he wanted to do was directed squarely at her.

There was a stench in the air that he knew. It was clinging to her, this Valerie Gray, this Red Hunter. He knew that smell- of course he knew that smell. It was that woman's little lackey, her brother. He could smell him on Valerie, and he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he had been in contact with her. So they had discovered where he was after all, he thought, and they intended to recruit local help in capturing him. He wasn't surprised. May like to play 'nice' by not dirtying her hands in capturing her test subjects.

Considering what she did once they got into her clutches, the idea was laughable.

_Steady, Phantom._ He had to tell himself. If you do something to her here, that'll be the end of it. You just need to step up your plans and leave here with Sam sooner. They won't be able to get to you once you're safe in the Ghost Zone.

"Speaking of which, we'd better head on Danny." Sam said, taking his hand. She flinched a little at how cold it was, wondering if he was really alright. Maybe she should convince him to get the nurse to check him out. Somehow she got the feeling that he wouldn't take to that idea, though. "We can't be late. I've got a perfect attendance record to uphold, after all."

"Always the serious student." Danny joked, casting a long look at Valerie, before he let Sam lead him on.

"Who the hell is that?" Valerie mumbled once they were out of earshot. Sure, Sam seemed convinced that was Danny Fenton, and no doubt his own parents did as well. But Valerie? Somehow she wasn't so sure.

* * *

If there was one thing that May Clayborne did not enjoy dealing with, it was an irate client.

She liked this one the least. There was something about the way that he held himself, something that told her that this man thought that he was better than her, far better. He thought that she was ignorant, and simply sitting in his lap, and as much as she allowed him to hold on to that illusion so that she could work far more money from him than he would ever dream of giving her otherwise, it was enough to make her want to take him and show him just how weak he really was.

"Now, now, Mr. Masters." May said coolly, staring at the pacing man from across her desk. Once he had gotten word that they had located the elusive Phantom, he had come storming in here, demanding to speak with her. "I understand your concerns, but recapturing a creature such as Phantom takes time." She told him, spreading her arms. "But be assured, he will come back to my possession soon. I know you are eager to have your purchase be completed."

She didn't ask what the man wanted a half-ghost demigeist for, and honestly, she didn't care. If she could make money off of him, money which she could use to fund her research, then that was really all that mattered.

Of course, Vladimir Masters had no idea that the prize he had in mind was only half ghost. She had kept that from him.

Much like he was trying to pretend that he wasn't one himself to her.

May held far more cards than the man realized, after all.

"That's not good enough." Vlad said shortly, glowering at the woman. He didn't like the idea of this mere girl, at least, she was a mere girl in his eyes, barely in her thirties- not that she looked it, not with her babyface, speaking down to him. He paid good money to fund her research, even before she had brought his attention to an 'interesting' patient of a ghostly nature. "I don't understand how you could have allowed him to escape in the first place. I was under the impression that all of your patients were firmly underneath your thumb."

"Oh yes." May said, leaning her chin into her hand. "2942 is nothing short of a complete nut job, however, so he's gone beyond the point of my control." She observed. "At least on the basic level. I can assure that once he is reclaimed, I will break him so utterly that he will listen to whatever it is that you might want to do with him."

"I expect to see some results." Vlad said shortly. He was furious when he heard that of all things, the demigeist that he had his eye on had managed to escape from custody. The creature was perfect, too perfect almost, for his revenge and subsequent plans of world conquest.

But of all things for him to turn up in Amity Park- that made him uneasy. Not only was it possible the creature could recognize him, but it was also possible that he might accidentally harm Maddie Fenton, the love of his life. He didn't care about her husband, of course, in fact it would be very convenient for him should the creature kill him, but he couldn't stand the thought of losing Maddie.

He'd tried to track the creature in the Ghost Zone, of course, but he was slippery and elusive, and beyond that, seemed to have help. Once Vlad learned the identities of his little helpers, he of course, planning on having them torn apart, molecule by molecule. No one got in the way of his plans.

"Temper, temper, Mr. Masters." May said, smiling at him. "For those who have patience, the reward is that much sweeter. You simply can't rush these things. If we do, we are much more likely to have him slip from our grasp again. Our perhaps you're worried because he's haunting your town now? You don't want the good people of Amity Park to know that their mayor has a hand in supernatural dealings, do you?"

"That is none of your concern. If you can't capture him, then I will see to it myself." He said shortly. "And then you'll be out of quite a good deal of money."

"You'll have to hire yourself a new ghost hunter if you want to accomplish that." May said simply, unable to keep a hint of a smile off of her face. "I've already bought out the one you employ."

Ah, there we go. Vlad was too much of a businessman and an actor to completely give himself away, but there was a distinct flinch there that she caught. Wondering when she had discovered that he had connections to the Red Hunter, no doubt. When she had been able to get the jump on him. Perhaps that would get him thinking, and that was always an amusing thing. She wondered if he were the type to begin running around like a chicken with it's head cut off the moment his plans went even a little bit awry.

"The Red Hunter is an amateur ghost hunter." Vlad said shortly. "You can use her if you wish, but I don't expect her to bring me results- not in this matter, at least." He'd decided, on a whim, to provide ghost hunting gear to Valerie Gray in the hopes that she would be able to humiliate Jack Fenton by proving to be more competent that him- something which had worked wonders.

Still, he didn't like the thought of May Clayborne knowing anything about his secret dealings. He didn't like the woman at all to be honest, there was something about her that made Vlad's gut churn. Something about the gleeful way she went about all of her business, a glimmer in her eyes that made him vaguely uncomfortable.

He wondered what she would do if she ever found out he was half ghost.

Nothing pleasant, he imagine. That, however, was one secret he kept close to his chest, and she'd no way of finding it out.

"Then I suppose it's something of a race." May observed, still looking rather amused. "Should you capture Phantom before me, he's yours- but if I claim him first, then you will have to pay the full purchase price that we agreed on already, Mr. Masters."

"Very well." The man agreed, having very little doubt that he would succeed. After all, he'd left finding Phantom to this woman for a year, and she had turned up with nothing- surely he could do better. "It's a deal."

May watched as the mayor of Amity Park stormed out of her office, smirking a little to herself. Oh sure, she would take the man's money, sell him the demigeist, rob him blind while doing so. And then, when he got cocky enough, full of himself enough, May would take him.

After all, playing with one half ghost was fun, she could only imagine that two would be even better. And the thought of breaking someone like Vlad was a delight to her- she wondered how long it would take before he would break.

Probably not long at all.

"It's a race alright, Mr Masters~." She said to herself, smiling in contentment. "But it's not the race that you think it is."


	6. Hidden Faces Wearing Masks

Author's Note: Chapter Six is here! Sorry for the delay, I got a sudden rush of doing oneshots, all of which you can check out if you like in my collection. Anyways, as always, I hope you guys read and enjoy! Leave a review if you can, I'm always interested in people's thoughts and feelings and ideas about the story! Until next time~

Danny Phantom does not belong to me, although May Clayborne does.

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions REDUX

Chapter Six: Hidden Faces Wearing Masks

"Danny, what's even the point of _coming_ to school if you're just going to sleep through all your classes?" Sam sighed, moving up in the lunch line as she glanced back at her friend, who was sandwiched between her and Tucker. Grabbing a salad, she frowned as when both boys piled their plates full of meat. "You haven't been to school in awhile, and not to sound like a teacher, but you probably should be paying attention."

Even after the lengths that his mother had gone through to get her son back into the school system, he had just spent most of the day either snoozing or not paying attention at all. It was honestly more than a little infuriating, that he didn't seem to care at all.

"Eh." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see what the big deal is. I don't need school, Sam. Trust me, I'll be just fine without it."

"I can't really say that I agree with that. Whatever happened to your dream of becoming an astronaut, Danny?" She asked.

"That ship sailed a long time ago." Danny remarked, a strange look crossing through his eyes. "So, Tuck, has the good gotten any better since I was last here?" He asked, glancing a bit warily down at the burger on his plate. Of course, it couldn't possibly be any worse than the food he'd eaten at that place- if you could even call that food, that is.

"Nope. Still edible, but only just." Tucker said, paying for his food, and heading ahead to their usual table. Sam and Danny followed behind, and they could hear low whispers as they passed. By now, anyone who hadn't heard about the return of the missing Danny Fenton and what he'd done to Dash yesterday had been informed of it, and that got them a few more stares than the other two members of the trio would have liked. It wasn't like Danny was some kind of freakshow for their amusement.

Strangely, he didn't seem to mind all that much, and just shrugged them off as if they weren't a big deal. And they weren't, not really- he'd been watched by eyes with much more foul intents in mind than a group of gossiping teenagers.

"Charming." Danny said, taking a seat. Taking a bite of his burger, he chewed it lightly, before glancing between the two of them. "Well, this takes me back though." He grinned at them, although it seemed as if his gaze had a tendency to drift towards Sam. "I can't lie, I missed this a little, you know."

He had, although he didn't know if he had missed it for the desire of wanting to hang out with his friends or for the sense of normalcy that it brought him, something that had been absent from his life for a very long time. And in truth, most likely something that he would never truly find again.

Not after he had become _this_.

"We did too." Sam smiled at him, biting into a tomato. "And we both missed you, Danny. I don't think there was a day that we went by that we didn't worry about you."

"You sound like you're on one of those cheesy sitcoms, Sam." Danny noted.

"Well, maybe." She said, flushing a little. "But it's true." Still, she had to admit, that she had exactly expected him to be so... changed once he had come back.

Still, even so, she was happy to have him here. Although for some reason, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that if she looked away from him for one minute, that he would just vanish again. Maybe it was simply her own paranoia, but she felt that there was more to it than that. He had a whole different life while he was gone, she was smart enough to figure that out, and it was a life that she had no part of. She knew that Tucker and Jazz and his parents probably all felt the same way. And he'd become so close mouthed since he had come back home! He wouldn't even tell them where he had been, who he had been with, or anything that happened that had made him like this.

Sometimes Sam wondered if it was even something that she wanted to know. She couldn't shake the feeling that her best friend had been through something horrible.

"Well, I guess it's still pretty nice anyways." Danny shrugged his shoulders. He frowned a little, sensitive hearing picking up something before the rest of his friends, and he heaved a sigh, setting down his burger.

Oh right, that was how high school social cliques worked, wasn't it? You take out the boss and the underlings would come storming after you, wanting to take your blood.

"Fenton!" He heard one of them called out, and it was at this that he turned around, to find a punch already coming towards his face. Danny simply caught it, glancing up at the African-American boy in the football jersey who had thrown it, arching an eyebrow.

"What a nice way to great someone. What was your name again?" He asked, yawning a little as he used just a bit of force to shove the boy away. Leaning back against the cafeteria table, Danny looked up at them, appearing as if he had no intention of getting up from his seat. These guys he could probably take without even needing to.

"Come on guys, stop this!" Kwan caught up with the rest of his friends, worming his way in between Danny and the rest of them. "This really isn't necessary. Sure, Fenton was a little harsh, but it wasn't like Dash was exactly blameless in all of this. We really don't need to fight. We've got a big game coming up at the end of the week, and we've already lost our star quarterback. This really isn't worth it, okay?"

"Since when did you become the peacemaker?" Danny snorted, reaching back behind him and plucking one of his fries from it's basket, munching on it idly. "Last I remember of you Kwan, you were just as game as Dash was for beat up the little nerdling day- which of course, for you two, was every day."

"I grew out of it." Kwan said, glancing back at him. "Come on, Fenton, it's not worth getting into a fight with Randy, is it? He's just upset, is all. And I'm sorry for Dash getting on you yesterday, he was in the wrong." He said. "Well, you were in the wrong too, I have to be honest here."

"And that's why you should let me break this punk's face." Randy seethed. "I mean, who does he think he is, strolling back in here like he's suddenly decided that he owns the place? I don't know what freaky shit you've been getting into for the past four years, Fenton, but we don't need you stinking up Casper High with it. And we don't appreciate you taking our star quarterback out of the game- we kind of need him, you know."

"Don't worry, I don't intend to." Danny said, holding up his hands, giving them a small smirk. "Ah, but I see the good old Casper High Ravens still suck as much as they always have. If I didn't know any better, I would swear that this town has been placed into a time capsule or something. Nothing's changed here at all."

"Come on Randy, ignore him." Kwan pleaded. "Lancer's in a foul mood as it is, if he catches us fighting, it'll be all our hides in the can."

"He's got a point." Danny noted, quirking an eyebrow, locking eyes with Randy. "Besides, you'd just find yourselves without a football team. I doubt Kwan here could play the entire game by himself."

Randy snorted at this, shaking his head. "Oh, and you think you're such a hotshot now Fenton, that you could take us all on? You got lucky with Dash, real lucky, punk, but don't let it get to your head. There's seven of us here, and only one of you, and I doubt your little goth girl and technogeek friends are going to be of much use."

"I don't need 'em." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "And you might be right about Tucker, but if I recall Sam well enough, she could probably more than hand your rear end to you, Randy."

Sam flushed a little at the compliment, grateful that someone around here remembered that she wasn't exactly to be sneezed at- although she could hear Tucker's protest in the background. "Come on Danny, Kwan's right. You barely escaped trouble with Dash, there's no way Lancer would even let you into the school again if you got into a fight with the rest of the football team."

"Like I care about that." Danny rolled his eyes, but shrugged his shoulders. Since Sam didn't want him to fight, then he was just fine with that. "But alright, Sam. These guys really aren't worth the time of day anyways."

"Oh you're going to pay for that you little shit." Randy hissed, breaking free of Kwan's hold of him, reaching out to grab the black haired boy by the collar- but instead found himself face planting into Danny's lunch.

"Aw man, I wasn't done eating that yet." Danny frowned. He had gotten up and moved out of the way in nearly the blink of an eye, so fast that everyone at the table had to do a double take. "Although, I gotta admit, that is pretty funny. What do you think, Tuck?"

"Quality physical humor." Tucker agreed, nodding his head. "The lunch lady will probably replace your food if you show it's all smashed to her. Or if you show her Randy's face, which has apparently become very well acquainted with your hamburger."

"They sound like the perfect couple." Danny snickered, before noticing another one of the football players coming in, fist swinging towards his face. A simple duck took care of that one, and he tucked his pockets into his pants, grinning at the player. "Nope, sorry. Sam said not to fight, so I'm not fighting."

"Come on guys!" Kwan hissed, trying to pull the other football player who had rushed out back- and missed Randy charging for Danny at the same time. Danny, however did not, simply stepping out of the way of his fist, frowning a little.

"You should listen to Kwan. I'm not going to fight you guys." Danny told them, frowning a little. If they kept pressing him however- well, he couldn't say for sure. Normal high school students weren't much of a threat, but he wasn't sure if he could entirely trust his instincts to not get in the way of his common sense- what little of it that he had left.

"What, you hiding behind your girlfriend, Fenton?" Randy asked, glowering at him. "You're all a bunch of losers anyways, so it figures that the _freak_ gothgirl would go with the freak boy!"

Danny twitched, not exactly happy about his choice of words. "Sam is not a freak." He glowered- himself, yes, he was quite clearly a freak. After all, there was nothing normal about being half-ghost. "Don't you dare say that again, Randy."

"Or what?" Randy laughed. "She's a little freak, just like you, Fenton."

Taking his fists from his pocket, Danny clenched them tightly, locking eyes with Randy. "Don't say that again about her."

"Danny, come on, it's okay, leave it." Sam sighed. "I don't mind being called names. You know that I really don't care what other people think about me, right? Least of all some testosterone fueled _jerk_."

Randy just snorted. "Yeah, well, those words don't mean much coming from some weirdo goth girl. Why don't you go curse me or something if you really want to make me shake in my shoes, you little freak?"

"I did warn you." Danny said lightly, before he moved again. He dropped into Randy's guard before he had a chance to react, and he found a hard fist meeting his jaw, a very distinct sound being made as Danny's fist connected with it, one that caused everyone within earshot to wince. "Let's see how easy you can talk through a broken jaw, you little asswipe."

It all went in a blur then, the cafeteria breaking into chaos. In spite of Kwan's attempts to hold them at bay, the other members of the football team rushed for Danny, although one, he noted in the chaos, silently slipped away. They came at him, and were also forced to the ground, one of them even colliding with the back wall with one well placed kick from Danny. When it finally died down, only Danny was left standing, not a single hit on him, nor even showing the slightest bit of exhaustion.

"Well then." He said, dusting off his hands, cracking his neck a little. "That was a thing." He remarked, before glancing back at Sam. "Although isn't it great Sam? Randy's not going to be able to say anything nasty about you for awhile!" He told her, hauling the aforementioned boy up by the back of his collar. He had clearly passed out sometime after being punched, not having much backing behind his words it seemed.

Pausing to glance over at Kwan, Danny arched an eyebrow, tilting his head a bit. "What about you, Kwanster? You want to have a go at me too?" He asked. "Revenge for all your little football buddies?"

"Oh no." Kwan shook his head slowly. "I know when not to pick a fight with people Fenton. I don't know where you've been or what you've been through for you to get this way, but I'm smart enough to know when the person I'm facing is not a person I can win against. That's why I tried to stop everyone."

"Danny!" Sam hissed, finally shaking out of her stupor, which had been induced by the sight of her childhood friend, one she remembered as being weak and helpless, taking down several much more muscular guys without so much as a hint of trouble. Sure, she had seen him deal with Dash, but that was only just one person, and he really had caught him by surprise that time.

This was something else.

"You didn't need to do that! You just took out the entire football team! Mr. Lancer, not to mention your parents are going to be _furious_! He's never going to let you back into school again, and you'll be really lucky if none of them decide to press charges against you." Sam told him. "And put Randy down already, he needs to see a doctor, not be manhandled!"

"Hm." Danny frowned a little, blinking. "Funny, I thought you'd be happier." He said, dropping Randy like a cold stone. "Well that's not good."

"Right then." Danny took a step back, a strange look coming over his eyes- before Sam slowly realized that they had turned a deep shade of crimson. She was about to open her mouth to say something, when a strange sensation came over her. "Can't have that. Okay folks, go to sleep. This was all a really weird mass hysteria or dream or something I don't know I've never been very good at making up excuses and that was long before everything went to hell in a hand basket. So, hm. Nap time I guess."

"This was all the fault of a ghost? Yeah that sounds reasonable. Not a lie either. Okay, right. Go to sleep." He commanded, and although Sam wanted to open her mouth, to say something about all of this strangeness, she felt her own body betray her, and before she knew it, she was slumped down, snoozing at her table.

"Oh good, that still works." Danny commented, glancing at the security cameras, quickly frying each one with a blast of green and red ectoenergy. "I should probably make myself scarce though, hm. Oh but first." He said, walking over to one of the other student's tables, grabbing their uneaten burger, and casually munched on it, before going for the fries, picking up the container and casually walking away with it. Just as he got to the door, he gave a crimson eyed glance back towards the sleeping assembly of students and snapped his fingers, letting the doors shut behind him as he did so.

"Oh yeah." Danny blinked as he strode down the hall, munching on a fry. "I should probably go make Dash forget all about certain things while I'm at it." He said to himself, hearing the noises of the student body of Casper High rousing itself to awareness in the cafeteria. There was a vague sound of confusion, before they noticed the downed football players, and someone shouted that they needed to call an ambulance, while someone else shouted about ghosts.

It was a neat trick, and all, hypnosis, shame that he could only use it once on each person. He would have been a bit more careful about it, really, but considering that he wasn't going to be sticking around all that much longer, he figured that using it now was just fine. All he really wanted to do was convince Sam to run away with him- and barring that, well, he would just have to use other methods. He didn't want to be apart from her ever again, after all!

Of course, he didn't see any reason as to why Sam wouldn't want to be with him. Oh sure, she had said something about school, but that wasn't really important, was it? Or her family, but she didn't even like them, did she?

Dimly, he realized that perhaps he should have saved Sam's hypnosis for convincing her to run away with him- but there was still a little part of them that wasn't okay with forcing her to do something against her will.

And he didn't exactly want to let that part of himself go.

* * *

Vlad Masters knocked on the door of the Fenton Works building, pausing to straighten his bow tie, grooming his hair a little. Every chance he got to see Maddie was a wondrous one, even if that usually meant he had to see her meat headed husband while he was at it. The two of them were almost never apart from each other, and honestly it sickened Vlad that they were so very in love. He couldn't understand at all why Maddie didn't realize that marrying Jack was a mistake, and that she really should just divorce him and marry Vlad instead. After all, he would welcome her and her daughter with open arms.

Besides, he wouldn't have to put up with Jasmine for very long anyways, and would most likely find her a nice scholarship to somewhere, far, far away from underneath his nose.

Vlad had to bite back the urge to groan when it was Jack who answered the door instead of his beloved one, and instead forced himself to give the large man one of his smooth, business smiles. "Jack! How nice it is to see you. Might I come in?" He asked.

"Of course, V-Man! You're always welcome in our home!" Jack grinned, slapping his old college friend on the back, a little harder than Vlad would have liked, grunting a bit from the blow. How could that oaf have so much strength to him?

"Well thank you." Vlad said, stepping inside. "Is Maddie home?" He asked, hoping that he wouldn't have discuss business with just Jack. He wasn't sure that he would be able to even properly retain the information that he was given.

"Oh, yeah!" Jack said, shouting up the stairs. "Maddie, Vlad's here! Why don't you come down and chat? You can tell him the good news!"

"Good news?" Vlad blinked, already making himself at home, taking a seat in one of the Fenton's armchairs. He knew that if he sat on the couch, Jack would only make himself at home right next to him.

"Oh, it's wonderful news." Maddie said, coming down the stairs, for once smiling when she saw Vlad, although it didn't seem that she was smiling just because he was here. Normally, she was so sour around him, and Vlad just couldn't understand why! He was so sure that he always said the right things to her after all, and he was always sure to lay on the charm.

Maybe it was because he was hitting on a married woman while insulting her husband who he claimed to be friends with in her earshot, but he couldn't realize this fact.

"Right! You remember our son, Danny, right?" Jack asked, taking a seat on the couch, after which point Maddie joined him. Vlad's eye twitched a little, dimly realizing that he should have forced himself to sit on the couch anyways so that they couldn't be close while he was here. "Or well, you never met him before, but-"

"The one who vanished?" Vlad asked, arching a brow. He'd looked for the boy when he had heard about it to be honest, thinking that he could win Maddie's heart if he returned her son to her. But he'd turned up nothing- the boy had gone well and truly to the earth, which lead him to think that he must have been dead. There was no other way that he, Vlad Masters, couldn't find him otherwise. He had never mentioned it to Maddie because he didn't want to break her heart.

"Yes." Maddie nodded her head. "And I knew that if we held out hope long enough, and never stopped looking, that he would come back someday. And he has!" She said, an elated smile on her face bright enough to light up the whole room. "He's a little different, and he's awfully tight lipped about where he's been or what he's been doing, but he's finally back home with us Vlad, safe and sound."

Well, mostly sound, Maddie thought. She still hadn't brought up last night's issue with Jack yet. She wasn't even sure where to begin, to be honest, and she was more than a little worried that her husband would jump to conclusions. She didn't him scaring Danny off because he thought his son was possessed by a ghost or something similar to that.

Vlad blinked, a little taken aback by that. "Well." He said. "That is good news." He told her, putting on his best smile. He was more than a little surprised that the boy had managed to escape his notice, but he supposed it could happen. And as happy as he was to see Maddie happy, he was also annoyed because her son's return presented another complication to his plans. Would he have to pretend to take in both Jazz and this 'Danny' as well?

"It's the best news, V-Man!" Jack grinned. "Now, what did you come here for? It doesn't seem like you're here for a friendly visit." He noted, casting an eye towards the papers that Vlad had settled in his lap.

"Ah yes, about that." Vlad said, getting up and placing the papers on the coffee table in front of them. "I actually have a job that requires the unique expertise of you two. I actually believe you've already met the subject that I would like to be captured- or, recaptured as the case might be." He said, sitting back down. "You recall, I assume, that I fund a certain research group that looks into supernatural beings for the sake of humanity's security." He said.

"Yes." Maddie said, picking up the papers and glanced through them. The ghost that had vaporized Aragon, the one that Sam had told her was called 'Phantom', was looking back at her, all but glowering into the camera. Scanning over the file, she noticed that he was recorded in it as 'Patient No. 2942'. Glancing further down the page, she let out a slight gasp, her eyes going wide. "Oh my."

"Ah, I see you've noticed it." Vlad nodded his head. "He's a very dangerous creature that The Institute managed to get their hands on him. They were studying him in hopes that they could better understand so rare a breed of ghost." He began. "But as I'm sure I don't have to tell you, given that you've seen him, he escaped and has now taken up residence here. I would like to see him recaptured and brought safely back to me, where I can store him in an even more secure facility."

"Vlad, you're telling us to hunt a demigeist." Maddie said, looking over at him. They had tangled, unprepared with one of these beasts? They were lucky to get out with more than just a few scrapes and ringing eardrums. She had hoped- prayed- that the reports of the particular breed of ghost were just rumors and fantasy, theories and concoctions, rather than actual cold, hard fact.

But even still, she could feel a familiar itch in her, a deep, burning desire to understand the unknown. And a demigeist was very, very unknown to her. To her knowledge, no ghost hunter had ever recorded encountering one, but here was one that- at the very least, The Institute thought fit the bill.

"Yes." Vlad said, nodding his head. "I thought that you would be up to the task, Maddie. But if it's too much for you..." He began, knowing that he wouldn't need to finish that sentence.

"Oh no, Vladdie, we can handle that!" Jack declared. "Can't we, Maddie?" He turned to his wife, grinning at her, before he turned back to Vlad. "Oh, but do we have to turn it over right away after we catch it? Can't we study it even a little?"

"Well, I suppose an ectoplasmic sample wouldn't hurt." Vlad said meekly. That would be enough to provide Jack with a bit of contentment. It would be a piece of delicious irony that the beast would play a role in killing him later on, and he would have no idea that capturing Phantom for him would eventually lead to his own downfall.

"Wonderful!" Maddie clapped her hands, smiling a little. "We'll do it, Vlad. After all, we can't let something this dangerous just roam the streets of Amity Park as he pleases." She said simply.

"Well, that takes a load off my shoulders." Vlad said, smiling at them. Of course, should the Fentons fall through, there was always Vlad Plasmius to catch up their slack, he thought. He would rather not use his ghost form in his own city, not ranting to risk the chance of anyone learning his secret by mistake, but if he had to, he would. He wasn't afraid of dirtying his hands, after all, not like that Clayborne woman, who only ever sent out lackeys like that very strange brother of hers. He wouldn't be at all surprised to see Matthew's face lurking around here, to be honest.

He considered putting out a warrant for his arrest, knowing that would put a hamper in May's plans, but decided against it. After all, he'd seen what the boy was capable of, and decided that he didn't want half of his police force decimated by one brat.

"Of course. Don't worry about it Vlad, we'll catch him for sure." Maddie said. Glancing over at the clock, she smiled a little. "Oh that's right, school has already let out by now. Vlad, why don't you stick around? Maybe we can introduce you to our son, Danny." She said, standing up. "I should probably get some food as well. He's got a ravenous appetite ever since he came back, I doubt that the school lunch they serve there will be very filling."

"Oh yes." Vlad stood up. "I would love to meet this young man."

_And see exactly how much of a nuisance he'll be in my efforts to ensnare you_, he thought, watching as Maddie hurried into the kitchen.

* * *

Danny knew something wasn't right even before he entered Fenton Works. It was his ghost sense going off that had gave it away, something that had been going off more often since he had gotten to Amity Park. Frowning a little, he stared at the door for a minute, wondering if he should even go inside- he didn't exactly want to get caught in the crossfire if his folks were fighting a ghost in there. The last thing he wanted was for one of their annoying weapons to react to him.

That said, he also couldn't hear the sounds of a conflict going on inside either, which struck him as a bit odd. Did his parents not notice there was a ghost inside of the house? Frowning a bit, he sighed, rolled his eyes, and grabbed the door knob, opening it up. "I'm ba-" He began, but that was all he could get out before his father bum rushed him again, once again trying to scoop his son up into a powerful, bone crushing bear hug. Wisely, moving out of the way, Danny quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You don't need to do that every time I come home, you know." He pointed out.

"Oh I'm sorry, Danny my boy!" Jack said, laughing a little. "I just get so happy to see you walk through that door! So, how was your day at school?" He asked.

"A ghost attacked during lunch." Danny said, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know much about it, I missed it. Beat up some football players or something. You'd have to ask Sam or Tucker for more details, although they didn't seem to catch much of it either." He said, watching his father deflate as he mentioned this. "Sorry, dad." He said that after a moment, frowning a bit, feeling strange when he saw that expression on his face.

"Uh, is someone else here, by the way?" Danny asked, frowning a little. He could hear voices from the kitchen, and one of them sounded like one he wasn't familiar with.

"Oh yes!" Jack beamed at this, suddenly looking as happy as could be. "Do you remember me telling you about my old college buddy, Vlad Masters?" He asked, and Danny vaguely nodded, recalling the name from somewhere- although hearing it also bothered him, for some reason, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Well, while you were gone Danny, he moved back into town! Became the mayor recently too, and is doing a darn fine job of it if you ask me." He said, nodding his head. "Anyways, he paid us a little visit."

"Huh." Danny said, heading towards the kitchen, more attracted by the smell of food than the prospect of meeting this Vlad. Any of his father's friends couldn't be good news.

"Danny!" Maddie looked up as he came into the kitchen, smiling. "Come in! I made a bunch of cookies. Chocolate chip is your favorite still, right?" She asked, holding up the baking sheet. "Fresh from the oven if you want one. I would blow on it first though, it's a little hot." She said.

"Oh, thanks." Danny said, picking one up, before he turned his eyes on the other person who was there with her, sitting at the kitchen table as if were the most natural thing in the world. The moment he made eye contact with him, however, Danny froze, suddenly ripped from this place and time, carried away by his memories, the ones that he would rather forget.

_"A buyer for you has been decided."_

_He had been told that before he was stripped of his free will and sent off to be looked at by this 'buyer'. Although his body was numb, and unwilling to move according to his instructions, his brain worked just fine, and he could clearly recall the man inspecting him. He looked like a grade A sleazeball, although somehow, Phantom wasn't surprised. He barely even noticed his own ghost sense going off, although it seemed as if THAT WOMAN took notice of it, her gaze briefly flickering the man's way, a look of understanding crossing her face._

_"Yes, very good." The man had said, turning to May, unaware of the look on her face. "Perhaps I could see him in action, though? I don't want to be buying defective merchandise." He noted._

_"Of course, Mr. Masters!" May chirped, smiling at him, masking a calculating look behind those brown eyes of hers. "A suitable opponent for 2942- or Phantom, as we sometimes call him, has already been chosen in anticipation of your request. I'm sure you'll find yourself very pleased in his capabilities, he's grown and developed a great deal since he first arrived here two years ago."_

_"Well," Vlad said, pursuing his lips. "We'll just have to see about that, now won't we?"_

"Danny, honey, are you alright?" Maddie asked, frowning. "You dropped your cookie." She said- although to be honest, that was the least of her worries. For all the world, it looked like her son had simply frozen in place. "Honey?"

Danny blinked, snapping back to reality, shaking his head, trying not to look at Vlad, instead turning to his mother, taking in a deep breath. "Oh, yeah, sorry." He said. "I zoned out there a little." He said, eyes darting back towards Vlad for a moment. From the look on this 'Vlad Master's' face, it would seem that he didn't recognize him in this form at least. No doubt May never bothered giving Vlad the real records on him, and he wasn't the least bit surprised.

She always was the type to hold cards back.

Vlad being here was no doubt one of her cards, but Danny wasn't sure if Vlad was even aware of this. He looked like the kind of man who was used to playing chess, and not being the pawn in someone else's game.

"I see." Maddie blinked, not quite buying it, but decided not to press in front of Vlad. "Danny, this is Vlad Masters, Jack's _friend,_" and the way she stressed that made Danny think he was anything but a friend, "...from college. Vlad, this is my son, Danny." She said.

"Oh yes." Vlad stood up, frowning a little. There was something dreadfully off about this boy, although he didn't seem to be able to place it. Offering Danny his hand, he put on another one of his business smiles. "Vlad Masters. Maddie has told me all about you, young Daniel. I'm so happy that you've managed to find your way home after all this time."

He had to admit, Danny was a bit different from what he had been expecting. He had heard Maddie tell tales of a boy who loved space, who was a bit awkward and who wasn't exactly the king of popularity at school, but was a sweetheart and a nice boy who always thought about others. Too much like his father, Vlad had thought at the time. But now that he looked at him, he wasn't quite sure what to make of him. His eyes caught at the white streak in the boy's hair, and the tattoo underneath his right eye, wondering if that was some strange fashion statement- from one of those weird subcultures that so littered Amity Park.

Danny groaned internally a little, reaching out to take the man's hand. What the hell was with people and handshakes? Was this normal or something? He honestly for the life of him couldn't recall.

My, he was cold. Vlad frowned a little, glancing down at the boy's hand, giving it a firm shake, only to find his grip actually painful, his nails digging into his hands. Ugh, he thought, crinkling his nose a bit, he'd even painted them black. Here was a boy with no care as to what his future entailed, and he couldn't imagine that Danny's future would entail much, if anything at all.

Still there was still something horribly off about the boy, and Vlad didn't like one bit. He was normally very good at reading people, and he couldn't read this one at all, as if he was wearing a mask of his own. There were cracks in it, that Vlad could see, which he'd noticed as soon as he had locked eyes with him- why had he reacted that way, exactly? He'd appeared to be shocked- perhaps horrified to see him.

Taking his hand back, Danny frowned, forcing back the urge to rush over to the sink and rub all the sleaze right off of him. Did his mother have any idea what type of scum this guy was? He caught that he didn't seem to like him very much, at any rate, which helped a bit, but his father seemed to love this guy, and Danny couldn't understand. His oozing nature of vileness was as transparent as it could get, so why couldn't he see? Or why couldn't his mother see for that matter?

He had tried to buy him tried to buy him like an object like a thing had been the cause of suffering so much more suffering than he would have otherwise tried to strip him of his last vestige of human rights but it wasn't like he was really human or anything was he no he wasn't but he was but he wasn't but he wasn't but he wasn't but he wasn't

"Danny!" Maddie called out to him again, and he gasped, coming back to himself. "Are you okay? You don't look so well. Maybe you should go lie down a bit?" She asked, frowning a little. She reached to place a reassuring hand on her son's shoulder again, but then forced herself to stop, an action which Vlad caught notice of, frowning a little as he did so.

"Sorry." Danny shook his head. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. What the hell is this guy here for anyways?" He asked, sending a glare towards Vlad, which the man simply raised a brow to.

"A job." Maddie said. "Vlad has offered us a job to capture the ghost that appeared earlier here. You know, the one I mentioned? Who vaporized Aragon?" She asked.

Somehow, this news didn't surprise Danny much, but he couldn't help but frown. "Oh really? And what's in it for him?" He couldn't help but ask, eyes darting over towards Vlad, narrowing a little. Of course his own parents had been asked to aid in the capture of their own son. Of course they didn't know it was him, otherwise they would have jumped him the moment he had come in the door. This made things more bothersome, but he wasn't planning on sticking around for very long anyways, so why worry too much about it?

...Why was he saying that so often anyways? Of course he wasn't planning on staying long, he never had. But why did he keep feeling the need to bring it up? It... wasn't like he actually wanted to stay here, or anything, was it? No, the only thing he had even bothered to come back to Amity Park for was Sam. There was nothing else he wanted here and nobody else he wanted to see.

So why did he need to keep reminding himself?

"The safety and security of the people of Amity Park." Vlad said sharply, wondering at this boy's challenging look. He wasn't sure _exactly _what he had done to earn such suspicion from him. "What else could there be?"

"You just don't look like the type of person who is generally concerned about such things." Danny said flatly. "But whatever, it's not exactly my business." He said, looking away from Vlad finally, scooping up a few cookies from the tray. He hadn't had anything sweet in ages, he vaguely wondered if his stomach could even handle it. "I'm going to my room."

He paused a bit at the door, shooting one last long look back towards Vlad, before he headed upstairs. He paused again in front of his door when a look of realization crossed his face, and his eyes went wide, a huge, almost crazed grin forming on his face.

He knew who Vlad Masters was and what he wanted from him- or from Phantom, at any rate, but Vlad had no idea who he was. He had no reason to suspect Danny Fenton of anything, except perhaps a bit of rudeness. There was no reason that Vlad would link him to being Phantom, at least not in a short period of time. And Vlad being here was a bother to his plans and he just really didn't like the idea of the man himself being allowed to exist...

A dark smirk formed on the boy's face, eyes flashing crimson as he allowed himself to continue down this train of thought. If Vlad didn't know who he was, then Danny could use that, could get close to him, and could deal with him. Vlad couldn't bother him anymore if he was dead, right? And the thought of killing someone who had caused him to suffer- oh, it appealed to him alright. Not as much as killing That Woman would appeal to him but-

It would do.

He was going to make that smug bastard _scream_.


	7. The Boy Who Became Unable to Understand

Author's Note: Well that took awhile to write. I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so that was why this took a bit to get done, I've been working on it off and on for three days now. Oh well, here it is, at last! Next chapter, three way battle between Plasmius, Phantom, and the Red Hunter, so look forward to that! Thanks to those of you who reviewed last chapter, you are my support!

Danny Phantom does not belong to me.

* * *

Dangerous Obsessions REDUX

Chapter Seven: The Boy Who Became Unable to Understand

* * *

There weren't any stars where he was kept.

There were no windows, anywhere in that blasted place, at least, nowhere that the patients could gain access to. There were rooms there, he knew, made to look pleasant for visitors, be they government officials, or people like Vlad, rich beyond any measure and seeking to make purchase. These rooms were a far cry from anywhere else in That Place, the rest of it sealed off from reality, as if even the architecture of the building itself delighted in informing those trapped within it that they would never see the sky- or freedom again.

Others there viewed the blue sky as a symbol of freedom, but for Danny, it had always been the stars. Ever since he had gained his freedom from that hell on Earth, and ever since he had gained back some measure of rational thought, he had always stopped to look at the stars every night, no matter where he was. It was the last, lingering connection he had to his old self, he felt, a longing, yearning for the stars, for space- which he could no longer do anything about.

He had once dreamed about being an astronaut, but he was no fool- he knew that this would never happen, not after he had changed so much.

Still, the longing remained, and there wasn't much he could do about it except accept it. He didn't mind it in the end, it was nice, he supposed, to know that at least there was one part of him that hadn't changed yet- and he wanted to try and hold on to that part of him.

Tonight was a clear night, free of clouds or shadow, letting the stars shine brightly down below. He stood on the edge of the roof, underneath the OPS Center that his parents had attached to his house- he still dimly wondered how they had cleared that with the building commission. Perhaps they just couldn't even be bothered to deal with his parent's eccentricity, he thought to himself, snorting a little.

"Danny?" The door to the roof cracked open, and his sister emerged from it. "What are you doing up here?" She questioned him, stepping out onto the roof itself, rubbing her arms a little. "And without a coat. It's still pretty chilly out at night- and it's pretty late too. Shouldn't you be getting to bed?" She asked him.

Her brother had been in a mood all evening, ever since her parents had introduced Vlad to him. She couldn't exactly blame him, Jazz didn't care much for the man either, but there was something, some glint in Danny's eyes that made Jazz vaguely uncomfortable. She couldn't quite place what it was, some hint of mischief- or perhaps that wasn't nearly a strong enough word. Whatever the case, it seemed as if her brother was planning something, and that this plan was amusing him greatly.

She didn't like it. It wasn't a glint she felt should even be there.

"Really?" Danny quirked an eyebrow, frowning a little, before he shrugged his shoulders. "I hadn't noticed. It doesn't seem that cold to me. Shouldn't you be getting to bed if it's so late though?" He asked, peering back at her. "You should worry more about yourself. Anyways, what brought you in pursuit of me, Jazz? Knowing you, there's clearly something you want to talk about." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Is there anything wrong about an older sister being concerned about her little brother?" Jazz asked, frowning deeply. "I know what I saw the other night, Danny, and I know you've been doing everything in your power to avoid being alone with me since then. We need to talk about them you know." She said, crossing the roof and closing the distance between them. "We need to talk about what you're hiding not just from me, but from everyone. _Please_."

"I told you, I'm _not _going to talk about it. I don't want to." Danny told her, turning to glare at her. She flinched a little from the sharp gaze, an expression she was unused to on her brother's face. "And there's nothing that you can say or do that will ever change my mind, Jazz. You might as well stop harassing me about it already. What's happened has happened, and there's no need to discuss it. Not with you, not with mom and dad, not with anyone."

Jazz shook her head, looking thoroughly unconvinced. "I don't think that's the case, Danny." She said. "I think you do want to talk about it, you just don't know how to put it into words." She paused then, eyes narrowing slightly in consideration. "And you're also afraid to. You're afraid to discover what will happen when you do talk about what happened to you, about where you've been. You're afraid of-"

"I'm not afraid of _anything_!" Danny cut her short, barely able to keep his eyes from changing color. "Stop acting like you understand a single thing about me, Jazz. The old me, maybe, but as I am now, there's not a single thing you could _possibly _understand. Stop trying to psychoanalyze me or whatever it is you're trying to do already, because I _never _asked you to do that!"

"I'm just trying to _help_!" Jazz shouted back, now returning her brother's glare. "I care about you Danny, and I'm _worried _about you! Why is it that you can't seem to understand that? We're family, and we're supposed to look out for each other!"

"I didn't _ask _for your help either!" Danny shouted in return, clenching his fists. "I don't want you _prying _into my past, Jazz! You need to just leave well enough alone. I didn't ask for any of this, I don't want people to know anything! That's why I said I couldn't remember!" Dimly, Danny was aware that he had just given away his lie, but it was likely that Jazz had never fallen for it in the first place. "_Nobody _needs to know about that." He said, his voice quieter, glancing away from her. "Least of all you guys. Please Jazz, stop pressing me."

"I want to _know_." Jazz told him. "Somebody, somewhere, has hurt _my _baby brother, has clearly done something horrible to him- Danny, I can tell that much already. It's not just the scars on your body that I'm worried about, it's the scars up here," she said, pointing towards her head, before she lowered it, placing it over her heart. "And here, that I'm also worried about. They're deep scars, and they can never even begin to heal if you don't want to talk. And I know you're scared and afraid of what will happen if you do, of how people will react, but you will never get any better if you keep this all inside of you. These scars of yours will only fester, unhealing, and they'll only make things even worse."

"_Please _Danny, I finally have you back home, I don't want to lose you again." Jazz finished, all but imploring him in return. "Just tell me something. Anything you can. I want to _help_."

"I don't _understand_." Danny said finally, meeting her eyes again, a look of utter confusion in them. "Why won't you just drop it? Why do you even care so much? Just because we happen to be related to each other doesn't even mean anything, it doesn't give us some kind of special bond or something. We're just two people who happen to share the same blood. I don't understand what your _fixation _on this is- I don't understand why you feel the need to help me just because I'm your younger brother."

Jazz took a small step back, the weight of a revelation dropping on her was like a thousand pounds. "You really _don't_ understand, do you Danny?" She whispered, peering into those confusion filled eyes. "You don't understand anymore."

Danny winced, stepping back himself, looking away from her. Had he said something he shouldn't? But he didn't understand, he didn't understand why all of them were so dead set on helping him. Not only Jazz, but also his mother, and his father in his own way. They all wanted to 'help, wanted to understand- but why? He couldn't figure it out. Was there a time when he was supposed to understand this? He couldn't remember, he couldn't remember for the life of him, but given Jazz's reaction, he was sure there must have been. "What does it even matter?"

"It matters _so much_, Danny." Jazz told him, closing the distance between them, until she stood in front of him. She hesitated, but only for a moment, before she took his hand, finding it colder even than the chill of the night air. "The bonds a family have to each other are important, and you seem to have forgotten what it's like to have them." She paused then, as if reconsidering her words, shaking her head. "No, not only the bonds of family, but bonds in general. You don't understand how to connect to people anymore, do you? You don't understand how to trust anyone. Someone hurt you, hurt you_ so badly_ that you've forgotten, changed something inside of you. I can't forgive that, I can't forgive that person."

"But that isn't your fault." She continued, holding his hand tighter as he tried to pull it away from her, tried to escape. "It will never be your fault. I'm not stupid Danny, I know enough to know that someone else was at fault for what happened to you, and I know that part of the reason that you won't talk is because some part of you is afraid of us getting involved with them."

"Cut it out already." Danny whispered, snatching his hand away from his sister, backing up a step. "I asked you to _leave me alone_, not continue to pry. I don't care what you think Jazz, I don't want your help." He almost hissed at her, willing himself to feel some anger- willing himself to deny that there was a part of him, a small but very vocal part of him, that very much still wanted someone to help him. But the rest of him had already made up his mind that he was already beyond help, beyond saving. After all, after this he was going to go and _murder _someone, and he wasn't even feeling the least bit of remorse over these thoughts- they were perfectly natural to him, as natural to him as breathing.

Some part of him still knew that this was wrong, that this was supposed to be a bad thing- but even that part didn't really seem to care enough to stop him. After all, Vlad Master wanted to buy him, to strip away the last portion of humanity that he still had left and use him for who knows what- so why on Earth should someone like that be allowed to live? Plus, he sort of didn't like the way he was looking at his mother, either. There was something sketchy about this dude, something about him that he didn't like one bit.

A slime in an overpriced suit.

"Alright." Jazz took a step back. "I won't press you anymore tonight, Danny, but sometime we do need to sit down and just have a long talk, just you and me. And you can tell me _anything_." She told him, meeting his eyes. "Anything at all, and I'll listen, no matter _what _it is. No matter what it's about. You're my little brother, and no matter what you have to say to me, that won't change that fact, and it won't change the fact that I love you and care deeply about you. _Nothing _will ever change that fact."

Danny couldn't help but snort at that, shaking his head. He imagined if he told his sister that he had killed people, that fact would quickly change. "Oh please. That's a nice _sentiment_, Jazz, but I know it's not the truth. You really shouldn't talk about things you know nothing about." He told her, shrugging his shoulders, before walking by her, avoiding her as she tried to reach out to take his arm to stop him from leaving. "Oh no, I'm through with this little chat now. I've got things I need to take care of, sis, things that are of great urgency." He told her, glancing back only once, before he continued towards the door, shutting it behind him.

After all, it was best to strike while Vlad had no idea who or what he was. He didn't think the man was _entirely _stupid, so he needed to strike while he was still oblivious to the truth.

He couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he realized that the thing he has desired so badly had just casually walked up to him and stabbed him in the heart.

It would be _thrilling_.

* * *

Vlad Masters was not a man to waste time, nor was he a man to ignore any available options. The Fentons would no doubt begin their search for Phantom tomorrow morning, but that wasn't soon enough for him, not when he didn't know that Clayborne woman could be planning. Therefore, he needed to get the jump on this himself, quite confident that he could take Phantom. After all, demigeist or not, he _did _have twenty years of experience on the ghost, who according to May's research, had only formed around four years ago, shortly before she acquired him.

In all honesty, Vlad was still rather upset that the Guys in White had brought such an interesting specimen to her first before him- he thought he had a contract out with them for the organization to bring him anything of a ghostly nature that might catch his interest. There was probably something going on behind the scenes there, and Vlad didn't like that one bit- he would be sure to look into that as well in the near future. However, his goal for moment was to capture Phantom before May had a chance to get anywhere near him.

For there was one thing about him that May did not know- or so he assumed at any rate- for as smart as the woman was, and he did not underestimate her intelligence, she had no reason to suspect that such a thing as a 'half-ghost' could ever exist. Nor would she have any reason to suspect that he, her patron of several years, was one himself. But he was, thanks to that blasted Jack Fenton, and while gaining his powers had taken many things away from him, namely the love of his life, they had also given him the ability to do things that no other man could do- and with these powers, between him and the Fentons, he was sure to capture Phantom long before Clayborne's little partnership with Valerie Gray bore any fruit.

After all, Valerie Gray was an amateur in the grand scheme of things. And even if Jack was incompetent, he knew that Maddie more than made up for him, so he knew that he had made the better pick of the two. Oh yes, May Clayborne was intelligent, and good at what she did, but she had frightfully little common sense it seemed. Why on earth would anyone pick an amateur over a professional?

But that was enough dwelling on such matters, now was a time for action. Surely Phantom couldn't be hard to find- even in a city filled with ghosts, one such as the demigeist would surely stand out. It would likely be an area devoid of many other ghosts, save those foolish enough to enter into whatever area that he had decided was his domain. They could be rather territorial beasts, after all, or so the lore said.

As the black rings traveled over his body, Plasmius smirked, a plan to capture Phantom already forming in his mind. He had made a replica of one of the Fenton's inventions- although why they had it shaped like a thermos, he could not figure out, most likely one of Jack's hair brained ideas. With it, he could capture almost any ghost, and surely Phantom fell into that category as well. Taking the thermos and tucking it secretly away, he grinned, turning invisible and flying out of his bedroom- after all, it wouldn't do for anyone to see a ghost leaving the mayor's home, now would it?

* * *

The itching to begin the hunt had begun long before she had gotten home from school that day. Valerie was gearing up, getting ready for her first night of attempting to track down the rouge ghost known as Phantom. Her eyes flickered towards the file that had been given to her, currently spread out across her desk, giving them one last look over before she buried them inside one of her dresser drawers- it wouldn't do for her father to find out what kind of ghost she was going after.

But it would all be worth it, she thought, when her father's entire debt would be cleared away. Although the man who had approached her the other day did seem a bit strange, she had no reason to believe he was lying on that respect. Her father's debt would be cleared, and her own future would become all that more secure- she could start looking at the colleges that she had dismissed before as being too expensive again, she thought, if all went well.

And she was confident that it would.

Pulling on her hood, she headed over towards the window of her bedroom, opening it up. It was a good thing her apartment was four stories up, she thought, it gave her clearance to summon her jet sled. She didn't want to have to walk up to the roof of her building every time she wanted to leave to do a little late night hunting- her father was sure to catch on to _that_.

Jumping down from the window, she clicked her heels together, her jet sled forming underneath her feet. She wasted no time in starting it up, hovering back to where she had left, shutting her window behind her. Grinning a little, and now all the more eager to get started now that she was properly suited up, Valerie turned around, and set out, beginning her search for this 'Phantom'.

She had read the files in detail, making sure that no word was overturned. He sounded like a challenge alright, but she could guess that much from the last time they had met. Still, the files had described him as rash, and not one to do any planning- and that was something Valerie could do. She was going to bag herself a ghost, clear the streets of Amity Park of a potential threat, and make sure that her father didn't have to pay a cent more to Axiom Labs.

Scanning the city, it dimly occurred to her that she had no idea where to even start looking. But surely a ghost like Phantom would leave some sort of trail. He didn't seem like the type to sit back and cool his heels for long, no doubt he would be looking for something else to destroy soon enough. And she would be there when he did, ready to face him and to take him down. Then maybe she would start to get a little more of the recognition that she felt she so rightly deserved for her ghost hunting.

* * *

He wasn't really sure what to think of the fact that it didn't occur to him until long after he left Fenton Works that he had no idea where he was even supposed to go to find this Vlad person. He slowly began to realize during what was apparently now aimless wandering that he had no idea where he even lived. Pausing in his walk, Danny frowned, rubbing the back of his neck, kicking the sidewalk in front of him a little.

"You know, I'm probably most annoyed by the fact that I can't actually tell if this is something I would have still done even before I got cooped up in that place." He said to himself, tucking his hand back into his pocket, looking around, trying to discern as to where his feet had lead him. He knew this part of the city- or so he thought, he didn't recall coming this way often, now that he thought about it, and it had been four years since he had last been to Amity Park. "I'm not lost, am I?" He asked, his lips twisting in a small frown, rolling his eyes. "Who the hell even gets lost in their own hometown anyways?"

"Oh that's right!" He said to himself, pounding his fist into his open hand, an idea sparking in his brain. "I could always check the mayor's office. I know where that is, it's hard to miss that place after all. I think I know where I am now that I think about it, maybe. Of course you know, there's also wandering around until I run into something that's more familiar, that's a viable option too. It's not exactly like I'll get _tired _or anything."

"Then again, why would he be at work at this time of night?" Danny asked, reconsidering his earlier idea, already in motion again, starting to walk forward. He still had no idea where he was going, to be honest, but perhaps if he walked around long enough, he would find a house that screamed 'I'm owned by an asshole!' to him. Of course, he could always turn into Phantom and fly to look for an area he knew, or a place that might belong to Vlad- he looked like a showy bastard, surely he lived somewhere flashy?- but he dismissed the notion. He was, more or less, still trying to keep a low profile. After all, it seemed that judging from her smell, one of the Claybornes had made contact with that Valerie Gray girl, who he suspected from her voice was the Red Hunter.

No doubt she was looking for Phantom already. It wasn't like this thought troubled him or anything, he had no doubt that he could destroy her in an instant if he got serious. But, he thought, he should probably avoid any more deaths than necessary, and it wasn't like the Red Hunter had really even done anything to him. She was just some teenage girl playing at being a ghost hunter, and she wasn't exactly anything to worry about.

A small wisp of mist escaped from his mouth then, and Danny blinked, frowning a little as he looked around. There was another ghost around? Well, judging from what his mother had said the other day, ghost attacks weren't all that uncommon in Amity Park. Now that he thought back on it, didn't he hear something like that when he was living in the Ghost Zone before? He dimly recalled someone saying that Amity Park was a 'hot spot' or something like that where there was easy access to the human world. He guessed that was that accursed Ghost Portal, the one that had been the start of all of his problems.

He caught sight of the ghost then, and almost immediately, one eyebrow shot way up, as he took in the strange sight of a blue, vampire-like ghost, a white cape fluttering in the light breeze behind him. "What the hell?" He found himself muttering, tilting his head to one side, trying to make heads or tails of this ghost's appearance. He had seen a lot of strange ghosts in his days, but never one that was quite so... _theatrical_. It was almost as if the ghost _wanted _people to pay attention to him.

Plasmius caught that someone was speaking, if not what they had said, turning his attention down towards the ground below. He had sensed that there was a ghost nearby here, but upon arriving, he had found that there was no such thing in sight- but was that the Fenton boy? What on earth was he doing out this late? It was already well past midnight, surely the boy had school the following day. He did have to admit, he was more surprised by how unmoved he was upon seeing a ghost such as himself, finding that a bit odd. Plasmius, after all, did have something of a reputation as being a strong and powerful ghost in Amity Park, and it bothered him somewhat that Jack Fenton's son's only reaction upon seeing him was to tilt his head a little.

"Aren't you out a little bit late, child?" Plasmius asked, floating downwards, hovering in front of the raven haired boy. "Didn't your parents ever tell you that children should be in bed at this hour?"

"I'm eighteen, I hardly think that qualifies me as being a child." Danny said coolly, quirking a brow. "What are you supposed to be anyways, the Curfew Ghost or something?" He asked.

"Plasmius." The ghost introduced himself, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He was either brave or foolish, Plasmius guessed, and he was leaning towards the latter, given who his father was. "You do know that you're speaking to a ghost, don't you child? I must say, you don't seem to have much of a sense of self preservation."

"I'm sorry I just don't find a blue vampire in a cape very intimidating." Danny said bluntly, shrugging his shoulders. "The horn hair really isn't helping your case either."

"Such charming wit." Plasmius snorted. "Well, I did have other plans for this evening, but I suppose they can be put on hold for kidnapping Jack Fenton's idiot son and using him to lure the fool out."

"Yo, I am not okay with that." Danny said, shaking his head. Not that this ghost could, he thought- though one thing did strike him as odd. He knew who he was? Was there a ghost who watched his father this closely? And what exactly did this Plasmius or whoever want with his father in the first place? "Sorry, I'm going to have to put a personal veto on your plan."

"It's not really up to _you_, boy." Plasmius said simply, before lunging towards him, grabbing at one of his arms- only to find nothing there. Danny had simply stepped away from him, hands still tucked into his pockets, as if the ghost hadn't just come at with him with a great deal of speed.

"I think I kind of do have a say in it. It's about me, after all. What the hell do you want with the old man anyways?" Danny noted, blinking a little. The ghost was a little fast, but otherwise he didn't seem of much note. He could probably beat this one up without even having to transform. And if this ghost knew his father in some way, he would rather _avoid _doing that.

"I have a grudge against your father, dear boy, now cease this foolish resistance of yours and come with me." Plasmius demanded, eyes narrowing as he split himself in two, coming at the lanky teenager from both sides.

"Whoa." Danny blinked, flipping out of the way, landing neatly on the bar at the top of a nearby bench, balancing there on one foot. "Duplication. There's a nice trick. I guess you're not all just cheap theatrical costumes, huh." He noted, looking down at the two versions of Plasmius, both of them equally seeming baffled as to why the teenager was not in either of their grasp. "I hate to burst your bubble dude, but if your after ransom or revenge, I'm not so sure my father will even bother coming after me."

"Of course he will child." Plasmius snorted, both of his duplicates speaking at once. He had a surprising amount of agility and speed for a human- what exactly had this Daniel Fenton been doing while he was missing anyways, living with a circus? "He's your father. He spent four years endlessly searching for you after all."

"Oh right, that bonds of family thing again, huh." Danny frowned, tilting his head to one side, still not seeming to understand. "Jazz was going on about that earlier too. I really don't get it. Why would you throw yourself into danger because of someone who just happens to share the same blood as you? Do you understand that?"

The question took the man a bit aback, and Plasmius couldn't help but blink for a moment, his duplicates looking between themselves. "Well of course, child, that's basic knowledge, isn't it? If I capture you, Jack Fenton will rush to your rescue- and to his doom, naturally, but he will still come to your aid."

There was a bit of strangeness to the boy's eyes that Plasmius hadn't taken notice of before, that he was noticing now, a strange bit of offness. It was enough to make the half ghost feel mildly uncomfortable at any rate, but his plan still stood, regardless of how odd the boy was being. After all, there was no _human _that was a match for Plasmius.

"No matter." With a wave of his hand Plasmius, lunged for the boy again, his duplicate vanishing and reappearing behind him, planning to grab him from the behind. Surely to god, no matter _how _agile, he couldn't escape from his grasp this time.

And yet the boy did, casually walking along the bench, jumping off of it, causing the two Plasmius to smack into each other, rejoining back into one. Shaking his head briefly, Plasmius opened his mouth to protest, when he noticed that Danny was simply now walking away from him, before he paused, turning back towards him, as if he wanted to ask the ghost something.

"Oh right, is there any chance you know where Vlad Masters lives?" Danny asked.

"Vlad Masters? Why on earth do you even need to know _that _child?" He asked in return. What on Earth was going on with this boy? There was no way that he could keep slipping from his grasp so easily, and yet he did, time and time again. He simply couldn't understand it. How on Earth was it that a mere teenage boy was making a fool out of him, seemingly without even trying?

"I was thinking about killing him." Danny said, making a slicing motion across his throat. "I'm sure that's something you understand, ghost." He told him, a glimmer of madness surfacing in his eyes. "I've got a grudge against him too, I guess you could say. Oh by the way, I'm not planning on letting you kill my father either, even though to be honest, I'm not really sure how I should be feeling about him. It's like I feel like I should care, but do I care, or do I care because I think I should care? It's all really very complex, you see, and I notice you still haven't answered my question, and why on earth do you look as if someone just punched you in the gut? It's pretty rude not to answer questions, you know." He said, frowning a little, finally taking his hands out of his pockets, crossing his arms in front of his chest, almost seeming to pout somewhat.

Plasmius more or less missed the rest of Danny's ramblings, for he was much, much too fixed on the first sentence he had spoken. Daniel Fenton wanted to _kill him? _And was so at home with the thought of killing another sentient human being that he admitted this to a total stranger, as if it wasn't a big deal at all? Now he realized what it was that he saw in the boy's eyes that had disturbed him earlier, both when they had been talking moments ago and when they had first met- this boy was _absolutely insane._

"You want to kill the mayor?" Plasmius spat out, managing not to give himself away in his shock. "Why on _earth _would you want to do that? I don't think the mayor has ever done anything to you, child. And killing someone isn't normally something a human so casually speaks about- are you even correct in the head, boy?"

Danny blinked, glancing up in thought a little. "Oh yeah, I guess that's true, humans don't really do that sort of thing, do they?" He asked. "Not normally at least. I forget these things sometimes, you know." He nodded his head. "Sometimes it's just hard to keep track of what humans declare as being right and wrong and what's against the law and what isn't. Pain in the ass, really." He said. "Oh, me?" He blinked, pointing towards himself at Vlad's last question, outright seeming to ignore the first one. "Well yeah, I guess not. That's what I hear at least. A little unhinged or something, not a big deal."

"You want to murder _the mayor_." Plasmius reminded him, placing his hand on his forehead. As good as the knowledge that Jack Fenton's son wanted to killed him was to have, he almost wished he had never even got the idea in his head to capture this boy in the first place. Why on earth would he want to kill him? Did he somehow know that Vlad Masters had been behind various, rather unsuccessful, attempts at his father's life? Somehow, he didn't think that was the case.

"You want to murder my _father_." Danny shrugged, as if this was no big deal. "I don't see why you're so upset about this. I mean, unless you have some kind of connection to the mayor?" He asked, locking his madness riddled gaze on the ghost. "Do you?"

"No." Plasmius said shortly, eyes narrowing. There was something severely wrong with this child, and it wasn't just related to a simple mental illness. "What exactly are you, boy?" He asked him. "Does your father know about the things that you think about? I don't think that he does."

"What?" Danny asked, grinning a little- before shrugging his shoulders. "Who knows? Not human at any rate. Oh, although." He blinked, frowning a little, placing a hand on his chin, finally seeming to consider something that had slipped through the cracks of his mind. "Now that you mention it, you do know my father, don't you? Oh, I can't have you telling him any of this, now can I? See, that would be a problem for me, because I haven't convinced Sam of anything yet, and I need time to do that, time which I won't have if they know something is weird and now you know and since you know my father... hm, that doesn't sound like it would work out very well, now does it?" He asked him, staring directly into Plasmius' eyes, clearly awaiting a response.

"Well... no, I suppose that it would not." The ghost said, lifting a brow. He didn't like where this was going, and although he was still quite sure that he could more than handle the boy, there was a hint of uncertainty in the back of his mind. Not of his ability to win, oh no, that he was sure of, but rather, it had to do with the fact that Danny had so casually admitted to _not _being human. It was as if something in the back of his mind was trying to tug at him, to provide him with a bit of information that he just couldn't place at the moment.

But slowly, it all came together for him. Vlad Masters, after all, was a smart man at the end of the day.

Maddie had told him that the only thing of note that had happened to her son before he vanished was an accident in their lab a week or so before he disappeared. She had never given him anymore details about this, but he knew full well that around that time period, they had gotten the Fenton Ghost Portal up and running. And he knew exactly what one of their proto-portals could do, having experienced to effects of such an accident himself.

Danny Fenton was _half ghost_.

In any other situation, he might have been thrilled to know that there was another such as himself out there, but his mind continued to move on with this train of thought. Because there was something, something else that was bothering him, and in all honesty had been bothering him since he had first met the boy.

Danny Fenton had vanished four years ago. Phantom had come into May Clayborne's hands four years ago as well. And while it was true that Phantom had escaped from The Institute a year ago, it wasn't until now, after Danny Fenton had returned to Amity Park, that Phantom had been spotted in the city as well.

Danny Fenton could be none other than Phantom, the very ghost that Vlad Masters so dearly wanted to get his hands on. And he knew this, he knew that he had now hired his parents to hunt him, and furthermore, Danny Fenton knew that Vlad Masters was engaged in underhanded dealings that he was certain that Maddie would not be very happy about. The only thing it seemed that the boy didn't know was the fact that Vlad Masters was also half-ghost, and that he was currently talking to him right now- otherwise it was _unlikely _that he would have told him he was going to kill him.

And Danny Fenton, much like Phantom, was absolutely _insane_.

"That's what I thought!" Danny grinned from ear to ear, and a glisten of insanity in his eyes was all the warning that Plasmius got before he was on the blue ghost, exhibiting such speed that the older half ghost had _never _been able to posses in his human form. But Plasmius was faster still, and avoided the blow, which he dimly realized after he dodged it that it had come from claws- _actual _claws- that seemed to have grown from the boy's right hand. Apparently the black of his nails wasn't simply polish, after all.

"Oh come now boy, if you think you can best me, then you're sadly mistaken." Plasmius snorted, ectoenergy flaring to life in his hand, which he hurled down towards Danny. He couldn't afford having the boy tell Maddie anything about his dealings, although he doubt he would- after all, it would raise questions as to how Danny would have known about such things in the first place, and that, Vlad suspected, was something the boy was never intending to discuss with his family.

Similarly, his hands were somewhat tied in telling the truth to his parents, as Vlad would have to think of a reason why he would know anything about what their son was hiding in the first place in order to cut off that avenue of escape. Naturally, they would reject their son, he thought, after all, Phantom was a monster- he had killed people before, and he was far from mentally stable- but he would make a wonderful weapon, and that was why Vlad wanted him so badly in the first place. And he would obtain him, there was no mistake about that.

Danny dodged the ectoblast, grinning a little as he did, a small laugh escaping his lips. "_Pink_!" He shouted, giggling to himself, as if they weren't in the middle of a battle. "Your ectoenergy is _pink_!"

"My ectoenergy is going to send you to an early grave, fool child, if you do not shut your mouth." Plasmius nearly hissed, eyes blazing as he split himself into four different versions. "Now then, I'm going to see to it that you learn a thing or two about respect for your elders."

"Don't wanna~." Danny frowned, cleaning out one of his ears, using the hand that he hadn't grown out claws on. "I bet you can't even make me. I mean, really, look at you! You look like you belong in a soap opera or a children's cartoon! You don't exactly look intimidating, man."

Seeing that using words on the boy was a waste of time, Plasmius simply ordered his duplicates to split up, surrounding the raven haired boy from each side. "Now then, child. You'll be coming with _me _now. Savor the last moments of starlight as long as you can, because you _won't_ be seeing it again."

Apparently though, as he would soon find out- that was a mistake.

And a very, _very_ poor choice of words.


End file.
